Open Source Windows File Managers

Starting with Vista, Windows allows the recovering of previous versions of files without a dedicated backup. These previous versions are stored in "System Snapshots" as "Shadow Copies" whenever a Restore Point is made by the system or manually made by the user from the System Protection tab of the System App in the Control Panel. Microsoft limited this feature in Vista to the Business Editions. Home Basic and Premium do not have it, hence the need for this program. It turns out in Windows 8 the feature has been deprecated. The tab is not available except by accessing the computer as if it were over a network. However Previous Version File Recoverer still works, as does an alternative piece of freeware named Shadow Explorer. This version fixes a major flaw which prevented the recovery of files other than those saved on the operating system partition. This program was previously known as Vista Previous Version File Recoverer and Windows Previous Version Recoverer.

mEasyWipe is a simple tool to overwrite files several times. It toverwrites files with random data and uses also parts of the "Gutmann overwrite method". mEasyWipe does not guaranteee that the data is completely unrecoverable.