Microsoft adds WINFR file undeletion tool to the Microsoft Store
Enlarge / Although an undeletion utility may occasionally save your bacon, it's never been a good idea to rely on one. (credit: AFP via Getty Images / Benjamin Esham / Jim Salter)
Although it isn't yet built into Windows, Microsoft has finally released its own file undelete tool-it's called Windows File Recovery, and it works with the newest builds of Windows (variously known as 20H1, 2004, and 19041). We were pretty excited to see this tool has become available-even though proper system administration means frequent backups, which render this tool unnecessary. In the real world, proper system administration and frequent backups are a lot less common than we might wish.
The lack of a proper file undeletion tool in Windows means that many of us have been hoarding one of a handful of old shareware or freemium third-party utilities capable of scanning disks and looking for remnants of deleted files. The "hoarding" part is unfortunately necessary because finding one of those utilities means sorting through stacks of scam apps targeting desperate users-and frequently, you can't be certain whether you've found one of the good ones or one of the scams until after you've installed it (hopefully, inside a sandbox or isolated VM).
Installation
Microsoft has an advertising problem-searching Bing (the default search provider in Edge, on a brand new 2004 install) for Windows File Recovery gets you buried in pages of ads for other things. [credit: Jim Salter ]
It's great news that Microsoft is finally bringing that capability in-house-but the tool certainly could be easier to find. When we looked for Windows File Recovery by name on Bing, in a freshly installed Windows 10 2004 VM, we got buried under pages of ads for other things.
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