Unlike its predecessor, it supports CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays discs as backup media.

[3] Microsoft hoped that this simplistic approach would prove appealing to users who were easily appalled by "a long tree of checkboxes.

"[4] File backup in Windows 7 presents two options for operation: Let Me Choose, which allows users to perform backups of specific folders, libraries, and to create a system image; and Let Windows Choose, which creates backups of all personal data in user folders and libraries, and also creates a system image.

[9] Alternatively, one could mount the VHD image as a virtual disk, allowing extraction of individual files.

[7][8] Finally, hypervisors such as Hyper-V, VMware Workstation, and Oracle VirtualBox support VHD as their disk format, so it is possible to use these backups in virtual machines.

The Professional, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions support both the system image and Shadow Copy.

[15] The user interface of Complete PC Backup in Windows Vista does not support creating a system image to a network location; however, the WBAdmin command can perform this operation.

[16][17] Windows 7 provides a user interface option to create a system image to a network location.

With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft deprecated Backup and Restore in favor the new File History feature.

Microsoft cited low use as the contributing factor for its deprecation, though the company retained all of its functionality for users who relied on it; the feature was moved to a Windows 7 File Recovery Control Panel applet and all previous points of access were removed.

File History remains the default and preferred method to back up local content in Windows 10.