Purpose
The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a set of COM interfaces that implements a framework to allow volume backups to be performed while applications on a system continue to write to the volumes.
Run-Time Requirements
VSS is supported on Microsoft Windows XP and later. For information about run-time requirements for a particular programming element, see the Requirements section of the documentation for that element.
All 32-bit VSS applications (requesters, providers, and writers) must run as native 32-bit or 64-bit applications. Running them under WOW64 is not supported.
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: Running 32-bit VSS requesters under WOW64 is supported, but running providers and writers under WOW64 is not supported. Support for running requesters under WOW64 was removed in Windows Vista and subsequent versions.
In This Section
| Topic | Description |
|---|
Overview | Describes the VSS object model, backup and restore strategies, and how to create VSS providers, requesters, and writers.
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Reference | Describes VSS classes, data types, enumerations, functions, interfaces, and structures.
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Additional Resources
| Windows Vista and later | VSS is available in the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK), which you can download from the Windows SDK Developer Center. You can download the beta SDK for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 from the Windows Download Center. |
| Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP | VSS is available in the Volume Shadow Copy Service 7.2 SDK, which you can download from the Windows Download Center. Note that the 64-bit vssapi.lib files in the directories under the Win2003\Obj directory can be used for the 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. |
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Build date: 6/18/2009