Page 854 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Back up my files [when]. Ordinarily, File History quietly checks

your computer once an hour. If any file has changed, it gets backed
up at the end of the hour. These follow-up backups are quick;
Windows backs up only what’s changed.

So, should disaster strike, the only changes you can lose are those

you’ve made within the past 59 minutes.

With this drop-down menu, though, you can specify different
backup intervals—anything from “Every 10 minutes” to “Every 12

hours” or just “Daily.”

Keep my backups [how long]. This menu lets you specify how

long you want Windows to hang on to the old versions of your
documents. Maybe after a year, for example, it’s OK for those old
backups to start self-deleting, to save space on the backup drive. Or

“Until space is needed,” meaning that older backups self-delete to
make room for new ones when the backup disk is full.

Back up these folders. Unless you start meddling, Windows
automatically backs up your entire personal folder—that is,
everything in your own account folder: documents, photos, music,

videos, settings, and so on (“How to Customize the Places List”).
But by using the “Add a folder” button, you can tell File History to
back up folders that aren’t in your personal folder.