Why I (now) love Windows Vista

We've all done it. 

We've hit save, we've deleted, we've written over something we really, really wanted to keep.  And then spent the next two hours kicking ourselves for it and thinking, "I know better, why did I just do that?"

Well, I'm here to tell you that even seasoned computer professionals do it.  I just did.  Though this is about the design aspect of my work, it's just as relevant to writers…perhaps even more so, because once words are gone, it's near impossible to recreate them.  At least if I actually save over all the layers that go into making a website, I usually still have a static image somewhere that I can rebuild that from.  It just takes a lot longer.

So today, I'm in the stages of finishing a client's website and I did the accidental Save over the main file that makes up this site.  So in my frustration (because I really did not want to spend the 3 hours it would take to rebuild it), I started googling options.  And because I have Windows Vista (not sure if this works on XP or another OS, but anyone who knows, feel free to chime in.) I found out that I could restore my file from a "shadow version."

Now, of course, you will first ask if I back up my files.  Yes, I do.  But this was a recent design and hadn't yet been added to my backup.  

So how did it work?  You right click on the file name, choose properties.  There is a tab that says Previous Versions.  It will look for shadow copies on your computer of that file, give you the available choices and there you have it.  Your file restored.  It was so simple and saved me so much time, I thought I'd share in case if offered you the same.  It's important to always, always, always back up your files, but you can't back up five times a day to get all the recent changes.   So it's nice to know there's an alternative to help out in the meantime.

Enjoy! (And next week, we'll be back with the next "Favorite Happy Ending, from K.M. Daughters)