How to Enable or Disable File History on Windows 11?

The File History feature in Windows 11 is an automatic backup feature that will back up your user folder libraries to an external USB storage device. Furthermore, it keeps a revision history for users. When File History is enabled, you can select to restore previous versions of your files preserved by File History. When File History is enabled, you’ll have backup versions of your files available for you.

Although you’ll probably never need to restore backup versions of files, it’s a wise idea to keep backup copies with File History, just in case. Usually, Windows backups only the files and folders in a user’s home directory (C:/Users/Username). You can do so if you need to back up additional folders from other locations. This Risewindows article will show you how to enable or disable file history on Windows 11.

How do I turn on or off file history in Windows 11’s Control Panel?

To turn on or off the File History on Windows 11 using Control Panel, perform the following steps:-

Quick Note: You need an external drive connected to your PC to configure and run File History. Alternatively, you can use any network drive/folder if you have one.

Step 1. First, open Control Panel.

For that, click the Start button and type Control Panel. On the available results, click on its entry to open the same.

Step 2. When Control Panel opens, select the System and Security category.

Step 3. Then, click on File History from the right sidebar.

Step 4. After that, when the File History window opens, it will scan the available external storage device. Then click the . Turn on the button below the external hard disk.

After turning on File, History will immediately back up files from your PC.

When your external disk is not connected permanently to your PC, you can manually do the backup also. Just connect the external drive to your computer and click the Run now link in the above window.

If you want to disable this File History feature, repeat the above steps, and in step 4, click the Turn off button.

File History Restore on Windows 11: How Does It Work?

If you have File History running on your machine, and you want to restore a missing or damaged file, then you follow the above steps:-

Step 1. First, open Control Panel.

For that, click the Start button and type Control Panel. On the available results, click on its entry to open the same.

Step 2. When Control Panel opens, select the System and Security category.

Step 3. Then, click on File History from the right sidebar.

Step 4. After that, in the File History window, from the left sidebar, click the link Restore personal files.

Step 5. After completing the above steps, a new window opens where you can find all the folders that were backup by File History. You can navigate all the backups by clicking on the Previous (CTRL + Left Arrow) button or the Next (CTRL + Right Arrow) button at the bottom.

Step 6. Then, please select the file or folder you want to restore and click the Restore button to restore the file/folder to its original location.

If you want to fix them in a place other than the default, click on the Settings gear icon and select the “Restore to” option. By default, File History restores files/folders to their original location.

Then, select the folder on your PC to restore the selected file(s)/folder(s) on the file explorer window.

That’s it for the article.

I hope this post will be informative to you.

Good luck & stay healthy, guys.