Classic Shell: Forum

Microsoft removed easy shadow copy access from Windows 8+ by eliminating the Previous Versions panel from within Explorer "Properties"...



This facility provided access to Restore Points AND also to System Image backups - meaning that if you're doing shadow copy-integrated backups, not only can you do a bare metal restoral but you can actually get individual files back from your backups.

However, after a bit of digging, there is some indication that the software to support the properties sheet is still attached to the File Explorer "Properties" panel. One might even hope that it's just hidden by a registry key (or lack of same). This is a great feature I'm sure the serious engineers at Microsoft wouldn't want to be deleting from their systems, no matter how much their bosses direct them to do stupid things for the masses!

Note this Shell Extensions Viewer output from Windows 8.1:



The twext.dll is still provided by Microsoft, though it is just a bit smaller than the one in Windows 7.



There are several tools (ShadowExplorer, which is buggy, Z-VSSCopy and a few others that are very clunky) that actually can access the shadow copy / backed-up files in question, though until they actually improve their software these tools are not something I'd want to rely upon. Don't get me wrong, I'm a great fan of 3rd party software, but it has to be done well.

Ivo, since you know a great deal about how Explorer works now, can you suggest any ideas for bringing the Previous Versions panel back?

-Noel

I thought Microsoft modified the Shadow Copy service in Windows 8 so it no longer creates shadow copies of document file extensions in folders like Desktop and personal folders? It only creates shadow copies now of system file extensions? There was an additional option in Windows 7. So the shadow copies you see on Windows 8 are not as complete as Windows 7?

Does Shadow Explorer show you identical shadow copies on Windows 7 and Windows 8?

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I don't really care whether restore points are complete or not, given that a -vssFull system image backup is.

And it turns out to be as trivial as accessing one's drive via a UNC name (e.g., as though it is a server). In my case, doing Properties on a file in a File Explorer window opened to \\NoelC4\C yields this:



I'm betting with a slight internal tweak (assuming ClassicShell has a hook near the right place) that the panel could be brought back when the Properties panel is opened on a local drive as well.

-Noel

I should post a warning... After having exercised the above, my next backup failed with the message:

The backup operation that started at '‎2013‎-‎12‎-‎08T11:43:23.765618100Z' has failed with following error code '0x8078014B' (There was a failure in creating a directory on the backup storage location.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

I didn't take a screen grab, but before the reboot there were no fewer than two listings for drive C: in the System Protection setup dialog, where there should be one (as shown here):



It took a reboot to get Windows Backup to work again. Kind of a shame, because I was on my 17th day of running. I guess I can say Windows 8.1 seems good for about a 2 week run, at least so far.

None of the 3rd party shadow copy access programs seemed to cause this problem when I used them, so I think for now I'll be staying away from trying to restore files using the above trick and just falling back on the (slightly clunky) Z-VSSCopy software for the rare case where I need to restore a file.

-Noel