How to Restore an Earlier Version of a File or Folder in Windows 10/8/7

Quick steps to restore an earlier version of a file or folder in Windows:

Right-click the file or folder, and then click Restore previous versions. You'll see a list of available previous versions. If you've backed up your files with Windows Backup, the list includes the files from backups as well as restore points.

Overview

After editing a Word document or photo for a while, you might have made a lot of changes. You might later regret it and decide that the current version isn't as good as an earlier one. How do you restore a previous version of a file or folder, then?

The possibilities of restoring an older version of a file vary. Typically, Windows Office supports the Ctrl+Z File Recovery to undo changes, allowing you to revert to an earlier modification state of your document, worksheet, or presentation. However, this method doesn't work for many users because they need to recover not the version being edited but a saved version from days or even weeks ago. So, how can you effectively restore old versions of files and folders? Read on for an in-depth guide.

How to restore previous versions of files in Windows 10

Previous versions can be either copies of files and folders that were created by Windows Backup, or they can be versions that Windows saved automatically as part of a restore point. You can use previous versions to restore files and folders as needed.

Step 1: Right-click the file or folder, and then click Restore previous versions.

Step 2: Here, you can see previous versions of the file from its version history or restore points.

Step 3. If you're lucky, you'll see a list of previous versions of the file. Select the version you want, and click the "Restore" button.

Some of you might find it empty, with no files, and Windows saying “No previous versions available.” Your attempt failed.

Recover deleted older file versions using data recovery software

If the above methods don't work and you've permanently removed previous versions of your files or folders, how can you recover previous versions of files? Don't worry; you can still use reliable professional data recovery software to restore previous versions of your file. Data recovery tools like Data Recovery Wizard Pro are designed to retrieve deleted or lost data from HDD, SSD, USB flash drives, Pen drives, external hard disks, CF/SD cards, and more.

In addition to file recovery, this data recovery tool also supports RAW partition recovery, lost partition recovery, virus attack recovery, recycle bin data recovery, and more. Download tools Data Recovery Wizard now and recover previous versions of files and folders with just a few clicks.

Step 1: Launch the file recovery software on your Windows PC. Select the exact location from where you lost your files and then click on the "Scan" button.

Step 2: The software will immediately start scanning the drive and will soon display the list of deleted files. If you find the file you need during the scan, you can stop the scanning process. To quickly locate your target file, you can use the "File Type Filter."

Select the files to recover

Step 3: Select the files you want to recover, such as Word, Excel, PDF, photos, videos, or emails, and then click the "Restore" button. You can browse and choose a different location to save your recovered files.