Starting with Vista, Windows allows the recovering of previous versions of files without a dedicated backup. These previous versions are stored whenever a Restore Point is made by the system or manually made by the user from the System Protection tab of the System App in the Control Panel.

These previous versions can be recovered in Vista and Windows 7 by merely right clicking the target file and choosing "Restore previous versions." This feature is unavailable in Vista Home Basic and Home Premium, hence the need for this program.

Vista Home Basic and Premium Previous Version File Recoverer works with the other versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, so if you find it easier to use then right clicking on files in Explorer then by all means do so. The application however rebuilds the index each time you invoke it which is time consuming. Windows however may do the same thing. It may even work with certain version of XP when on business networks where previous version recovery is available through a 2003 or later Microsoft Server installation, although I`m unsure if this is true or not.

A similar program to this one is Shadow Explorer. You might find that program more comprehensive because it exposes all previous versions of files in an Explorer-like interface, although as discussed later this program does so also. In contrast to Shadow Explorer, the present program only returns previous versions within its GUI window that are different whereas Shadow Explorer requires you to choose a restore point in date and time and look to see if a previous version is actually different from the file you are working with. Using Shadow Explorer may be more time consuming then using Vista Home Basic and Premium Previous Version File Recoverer.