ShadowCopyView

Windows can automatically back up important files and folders through its Volume Shadow Copy service, but accessing these backups may not be so easy, especially for inexperienced users. This is where ShadowCopyView comes in. The application gives you direct access to all snapshots created by this service. It lets you explore the contents of each snapshot and you can also extract them to your local folders.

The application is absolutely free and it works on a variety of Windows platforms, from Vista to Win 10. What's more, ShadowCopyView doesn't need to be installed. You can just extract its executable from a ZIP archive and run it. The application doesn't have any special requirements and it won't write anything in the registry.

The software automatically detects and reads all snapshots that were created by the Volume Shadow Copy service. It displays them in a list, on the upper half of its user interface and you can browse through the contents of a selected snapshot on the lower half of the window. The software lets you navigate through folders and sub-folders like on a standard Explorer window.

If you find an older version of a file and you need it, you can just right click it and select an option to copy it to a local folder. The process is quick and safe. If there is a file with the same name in the output folder, ShadowCopyView will not overwrite anything. Instead, it will automatically rename any files with conflicting names.

Accessing Shadow Copy snapshots and extracting their contents can't get any easier when using ShadowCopyView.