Windows 10: What is -- Backup and Restore (Windows 7) Feature

I am running W10 and in the Control Panel there is an application called Backup and Restore (Windows 7). I played with it to see exactly what it was doing and I'm not sure and was hoping someone here may know what it is all about.

Firstly, why is it called (Windows 7)? Is it left over and will it soon go away?

Anyway the features seems to backup Libraries and folders of your choice. It is not like File History as it does not keep versions, but only a backup of the latest version of your files. What it also seems to do is create a "System Image". I assume that "System Image" is to re-image your W10 should it get terribly corrupt.

Can anyone here verify any of this?


Thanks

:)

 

Properties say I'm running Windows 8 ...

...exactly.... and it doesn't mean that this feature will somehow revert your PC back to Win7

 

Windows 10 Backup

No, my friend. The problem you are having is that Microsoft, being Microsoft, muddies the waters by giving features confusing names and then putting a link for Windows System Image to the Control Panel for Windows
10 Backup and Restore (Windows 7), which was an unfortunate choice on their part.

The description of Windows 10 Backup and Restore (Windows 7) is on

this page on Microsoft's website:

"If you used Backup and Restore to back up files or create system image backups in previous versions of Windows, your old backup is still available in Windows 10. To get to it, right-click the
Start button, and then select Control Panel > Backup and Restore (Windows 7)."

To put a finer point on it, Windows 7 had a feature called Backup and Restore in Control Panel. Windows 7 is what Microsoft is referring to when it talks about "previous versions of Windows" above. That's why they wrote (Windows 7) in parentheses.

Then, to make things worse, Microsoft also uses the name "Backup and Restore" to refer to File History, as described
here.

Regardless of what Microsoft calls it, there are three separate utilities:

Windows 10 Backup and Restore (Windows 7) - for restoring backups made in Windows 7

File History - a form of file-and-folder backup

Windows System Image - a basic disc imaging utility.

Windows 10 Backup and Restore (Windows 7) was not stripped of all its code except for what's needed to restore old backups. That would take re-coding and testing and more re-coding and more testing -
not worth the effort for a feature that you're deprecating. So the code to make backups is still there, but it's not supported. So it's still possible to make backups, but if you run into problems there may not be a fix, and succeeding Windows Updates may
eventually break W10B&RW7 completely.

 

Hi, this brief comment probably is enough:
Backup and Restore in Windows 10 - Windows Help -

- compatibility with backups made in previous Windows versions.

 

Thanks but that does not really say too much about exactly what it does, how or when to use. it.

 

Hi I'm sure you can research this further yourself, and explore backup strategies.

E.g. (noting these are Win 7/8 based)
How To Use Backup and Restore in Windows 7
How To Set Up Restore Feature
Windows 7 Feature Focus: Backup and Restore | Windows 7 content from SuperSite for Windows
Windows 8 How do I restore files backed up with Windows 7 - Microsoft Community

You can extrapolate this as appropriate to Win 10, or find ones specifically referring to Win 10.