First of all, thank you for developing TimeShift. It has become one of the simplest and most reliable system recovery tools available on Linux.
I'd like to propose expanding TimeShift to support Microsoft Windows.
Motivation
There is currently no Windows application that offers the same workflow and philosophy as TimeShift.
Most Windows backup solutions focus on full disk images, incremental backups, or enterprise disaster recovery. While these are excellent for backups, they are not designed to provide the simple snapshot-based system rollback experience that TimeShift offers.
The workflow I would like to see is essentially identical to the Linux version:
Store snapshots on a separate physical drive or partition.
Schedule automatic snapshots (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).
Keep multiple restore points with automatic retention.
Restore the operating system and installed applications to a previous state after replacing a failed system drive.
Leave user data management as an independent concern, just as TimeShift currently does.
Possible Implementation
Windows already provides Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which could be used to obtain a consistent snapshot of the running system before TimeShift stores its data.
The snapshot repository could remain independent of the source filesystem, while restoration would recreate a standard NTFS Windows installation, including the required boot partitions.
The implementation details are certainly different from Linux, but the user experience could remain nearly identical.
Why This Matters
Many Linux users also maintain Windows systems.
Although Windows has numerous backup applications, there is still no widely adopted tool that matches TimeShift's simplicity:
create scheduled system snapshots,
store them on a secondary drive,
and restore the system quickly onto a replacement drive after a failure.
TimeShift already solves this problem exceptionally well on Linux, and extending that philosophy to Windows would fill a gap that has existed in the Windows ecosystem for many years.
Thank you for considering this idea.
First of all, thank you for developing TimeShift. It has become one of the simplest and most reliable system recovery tools available on Linux.
I'd like to propose expanding TimeShift to support Microsoft Windows.
Motivation
There is currently no Windows application that offers the same workflow and philosophy as TimeShift.
Most Windows backup solutions focus on full disk images, incremental backups, or enterprise disaster recovery. While these are excellent for backups, they are not designed to provide the simple snapshot-based system rollback experience that TimeShift offers.
The workflow I would like to see is essentially identical to the Linux version:
Store snapshots on a separate physical drive or partition.
Schedule automatic snapshots (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).
Keep multiple restore points with automatic retention.
Restore the operating system and installed applications to a previous state after replacing a failed system drive.
Leave user data management as an independent concern, just as TimeShift currently does.
Possible Implementation
Windows already provides Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which could be used to obtain a consistent snapshot of the running system before TimeShift stores its data.
The snapshot repository could remain independent of the source filesystem, while restoration would recreate a standard NTFS Windows installation, including the required boot partitions.
The implementation details are certainly different from Linux, but the user experience could remain nearly identical.
Why This Matters
Many Linux users also maintain Windows systems.
Although Windows has numerous backup applications, there is still no widely adopted tool that matches TimeShift's simplicity:
create scheduled system snapshots,
store them on a secondary drive,
and restore the system quickly onto a replacement drive after a failure.
TimeShift already solves this problem exceptionally well on Linux, and extending that philosophy to Windows would fill a gap that has existed in the Windows ecosystem for many years.
Thank you for considering this idea.