Remove "Restore Previous Versions" Option from Context Menu in Windows

Windows has a feature which lets you to restore the previous versions of any drive, folders, or files. Actually, it is a part of "File History" service of Windows which helps in recovering accidentally deleted files by copying them to a backup location.

If you don't need this service, then you can can disable this by turning off the File History service in Services Manager.

• Open Run dialog box by pressing Windows and R key simultaneously.
• Type services.msc and press OK. It'll open Services Manager.
• In Services Manager, right click on the "File History Service" and choose Properties.
• Now, change the startup type to Disabled and then click on the Apply button.
• Done!

After disabling this service, you'll notice that the "Restore Previous Versions" item is still available in the Context Menu.

Follow the following steps if you want to get rid of the "Restore Previous Versions" from the Context Menu in your Windows PC.

Note: We'll use Registry Editor in this tutorial. Proceed with caution.

• Open RUN dialog box, type regedit and press OK button.
• Next go to the following keys one by one:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}\shellex\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\

• For all the above mentioned keys, you'll find two sub-keys:

ContextMenuHandlers
PropertySheetHandlers

• We can use "ContextMenuHandlers" key to manage the list of items which are displayed in the Context Menu (Right Click Menu).
• The key which is responsible for showing Previous Versions option in context menu is: {596AB062-B4D2-4215-9F74-E9109B0A8153}.
• Now if you want to remove the "Restore Previous Versions" item from the Context Menu, then delete the {596AB062-B4D2-4215-9F74-E9109B0A8153} present in ContextMenuHandlers key for all the four keys mentioned above.
• That's it! Deleting the keys will immediately remove "Previous Versions" item from the right click menu.

Tip: You can remove the "Previous Versions" tab from the Properties window by deleting the same key in PropertySheetHandlers key.

To restore the previous options, you'll have to create the {596AB062-B4D2-4215-9F74-E9109B0A8153} key again in ContextMenuHandlers for all four keys mentioned in step 2.