Microsoft has a feature in Windows Servers and Windows workstations called Shadow Copy. This allows it to take snapshots of your files so that if you want to restore from a previous time you can. Windows servers make it easy to setup and I use this all the time for my clients. Its not a backup but it does allow to easily restore files. I normally set this up on my client servers to run 2 times a day. Once at noon and the other after hours. For Windows 10 and early Windows 11 you can setup through the Task Schedule you can have PC automatically create the shadow copy. Here is one of many articles describing how to set this up.
The issue with newer Windows 11 is they are removing or not providing the WMIC option. To test if you have WMIC on your PC is open an administrative command prompt and type WMIC. If it says no file exist then you need to install it.
To install the WMIC from an Administrative command prompt type the following:
DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:WMIC~~~~
This can take some time especially on slow Internet connection. Once its downloaded then WMIC should be installed. Issue is its not in normal location so if you follow the instructions from article above you need to change the WMIC command to the following:
C:\Windows\System32\wbem\wmic
Along with the following in the argument:
shadowcopy call create Volume=c:\
Now it will allow Shadow Copies to be made. The issue with Windows 11 is to restore you cannot use the right click folder and select Restore Previous Versions. That works fine if the files are on a Windows Server or Windows 10 but Microsoft decided to not allow it in Windows 11. Another great wisdom from Microsoft.
In order to restore on a Windows 11 you need to use a 3rd party application. I like to use ShadowExplorer
It does require .Net Framework 3.5 so you will need to install this before using.
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