Making a backup of History

Backup program

You cannot make a backup straightforward, e.g., using the Microsoft® Backup program as system folders do not appear in the listing of all folders when Backup is launched. To make a backup proceed as follows (not in Windows® ME):

Change the current history folder name in Registry. History Inspector can do this.

Remove the system attributes as described above from the old History folders and return to Windows. The weekly folders in folder History.IE5 are also system folders, but it is not necessary to change them.

Now you can handle the History folder in Windows® explorer like any other folder. It will be shown also in Backup utility.

Note: according to Microsoft ®, back up of history is not required as this folder is rebuilt automatically...

- See References below! -

It is rebuilt indeed, but without its content!!! It is rebuilt as an empty folder.

Copying history

It is possible to copy the complete history folder with all sub folders to another drive or floppy disk as follows.

If you have installed the Windows Power Toys ®, right click the history folder and select 'send to any folder'.

This works even with an active history folder without changing any attributes. If you have some copies at different locations, they will show all the same content as they are system folders and effectively not the content of the selected folder but the content of the active history is shown. To show the real content you must either remove the desktop.ini files or use some special tools like History Reader.