Vista’s Previous Versions

Ars Technica is running an article called Recycle Bin not enough, Microsoft adds ‘Previous Versions’ support on the file system level. Much like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003’s “Volume Shadow Copy” and “Previous Versions” capability, with one key difference (emphasis added):

With Windows Vista, the operating system will make “shadow” (that is, backup) copies of files and folders for users who have “System Protection” enabled (the default setting). The feature will be called Previous Versions, and will be accessible via the right-click properties menu as “Restore previous versions.”

Of course this is subject to change by the time Vista actually ships, but is it a good idea to have backups of every file stored on your system? To me this makes just one more argument for encrypting the whole disk.

Note: the backup information is not stored with the file—when you send someone a file you’re only sending that version, the backup is stored separately in the filesystem.