Shadow Copy No Longer Limited to Vista Business and Ultimate

very good
key review info
application features
  • Vista Shadow Copy alternative;
  • (2 more, see all...)

If you are running Vista Business or Ultimate, you must at least have heard about Shadow Copy. To run it down to you briefly, the feature is designed to create backups of your files and allow swift restoration of the previous versions. In case you have boneheadedly overwritten a bad version of a document over a good one, it is the life buoy of desperate times, as you can revert the process and reinstate the good version in no time.

In case you are not a Vista fan or simply do not have the Business or Ultimate edition of the operating system, there are several third-party alternatives to the rescue. They have the same end as Shadow Copy, but in some cases support a more expansive palette of options and boast more flexibility.

History Explorer comes wrapped up in a simple-to-use interface that provides easy access to older versions of documents and files you frequently modify. It acts just like Vista's Shadow Copy feature, only it saves the copy of the document the moment you save it and does not pick specific times for the action, permitting you to view the various versions in real time.

It is designed for Word documents, Presentations, text files, and any other kind of project files. When starting the application for the first time, it asks if you want to automatically add the Documents folder to its backup database. You can choose to skip the task and add files and folders manually.

However, it comes at a $30 price, and the developer offers it freely for a period of 30 days, with all the options active. Unlike other software of the same feather, History Explorer takes a step forward and introduces the timeline concept, which helps you visualize in a glimpse the time and date when a certain version of a document has been created or modified.

The Explorer-like interface makes it incredibly easy to navigate from one document to another, modify your work, add new files to the application, or learn when it has been created. In many respects, History Explorer is very similar to a file manager, as you can navigate through your files and open them. In the left hand part of the screen there is the current folder or drive view that lists all the files available in that specific location. As soon as you have added the files to History Explorer, these will be marked by a yellow star. Should you delete one from the hard drive, the star's color will change to red.

As it acts similarly to a file manager, you have to keep in mind that once you delete a file from History Explorer it will also be deleted from its original location. However, the application will preserve its previous versions. On the downside, you cannot remove a specific version of a document from History Explorer and keep the rest. The software will take care of cleaning the database, and decides on its own which versions are sent to oblivion.

When cleaning the database, only old backed-up files will be deleted. Users can define a specific size of the database, and, the moment it exceeds the set threshold, it will be automatically cleaned so that new backups can fit in.

The lower part of the screen is taken over by the version information panel, which lists all the details about the variants of a selected file. At a glance, you will be informed about the total number of versions available for that particular document, the date and time each variant has been created, as well as the size per each backup. Clicking on an entry item will open that version of the document.

Timeline is the one feature of the application that differentiates History Explorer from similar apps. It supplies a clear view on the document versions the software stores on a grid split into more or less extensive periods of time, depending on your wish. You can change the time perspective from 10 years' length down to the last hour.

Intermediate zoom levels include monthly view, weekly view, daily view, down to hourly view. So, if you want to see all the modifications made to a document over a period of 6 hours, there is absolutely no problem, as it is just a matter of zoom level. The green left and right arrows in the timeline screen help you navigate through time and see the anterior backups.

By default, the app comes with a list of documents that it will automatically include in its database (remember the automatic backup feature for the Documents folder). The same goes for images, illustrations, and software developer files. These lists are fix, but it does not mean that the user isn't given the possibility to include custom extensions.

The Settings menu lets you achieve this easily, and with the least effort. Additional options present are database-related. History Explorer can be set at a maximum size (in MB) for the database, as well as rigged not to include files over a specific size. An additional option lets you calculate the size of the database and start the cleaning process manually (this is activated automatically, once the space allocated for the database fills up).

Using History Explorer proved to be extremely simple and easy, but there are several drawbacks that don't quite measure up to the price. The first of them is the fact that there is no easy navigation, if you have files added to History Explorer from all over the hard disk. Having all files included in the backup database displayed together, regardless of their location on the disk, would give you a clear view of the backed-up data.

Also, if you add a folder to the database and then fill it with multiple files, these will not be included in the software's database, so no backups will be created for them. This is because the application does not refresh the folder to include any of the ulteriorly added files, and keeps a copy of the folder as it was at the time of the inclusion in the backup database.


The Good

History Explorer's interface allows for easy manipulation of the backup versions, and lets you quickly view various details related to each document variant.

Only older versions of the documents get automatically deleted when the database reaches the fill-up level. You can add your own extensions to the automatic document import list.

Timeline proves to be a great asset when working with documents.

The Bad

The price is $30, which is pretty expensive, considering that there are freeware alternatives on the market that have the same end.

History Explorer does not include the files in the previously-added folder to the database, but only the folder in the state it was at the time of the inclusion.

It would be great to have the possibility to view all data added to History Explorer, regardless of the location of individual files.

The Truth

History Explorer proves to be extremely useful when working with documents of all sorts and you need multiple drafts. It allows you to return to a previous version with the least effort possible and faster than Vista's Shadow Copy.

However, there is a downside, and this mostly concerns the price. There are also several aspects that need to be reviewed, but these are minor compared to the registration fee.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 3


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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