Open File from History/See File Content

Further to what @drwtsn32 said there is an enhancement request on GitHub to add a file history in the recovery window but it’s not ready yet. Side note for all you code cowboys out there, there is a nice $280 bounty on that request.

To simplify restores to an alternate location until we get a history view, here are my suggestions.

  1. Create an easily accessible folder to perform the restore into. Something like “C:\RestoredFiles” is great, nice and easy to find with a short path. A less optimal choice would be to make that folder on your “Desktop”, now because your Desktop folder is probably located in “C:\Users%username%\Desktop” , so that new folder would be “C:\Users%username%\Desktop\RestoredFiles”. Sure you can access the files either way but the first way involves less browsing and it restores the files to a location outside of the current users profile (handy if restoring files for another user account).
  2. Clean the folder out once your restore is complete and you’ve moved your data to it’s proper location. This way you’re always restoring to an empty folder.
  3. IMO restoring to an alternate location is much safer overall, I do alt restores regardless of which backup software I’m using. By creating a second copy in another location you can test/open the file while keeping what you currently have. If it’s not the one you wanted, delete it from the restore folder and try again from a different days backup. Once you know for certain that the restored copy is what you want, just manually move it (Copy, Paste, Overwrite) into place.