TortoiseSVN is a client for free Open Source version control system Subversion. TortoiseSVN manages files and directories over time.
The files are stored in a central repository. The repository is much like an ordinary file server, except that it remembers every change ever made to your files and directories. This allows you to recover older versions of your files and examine the history of how and when your data has changed.
This is why many people think of Subversion and version control systems in general are a sort of <time machine to go back.>
Some version control systems are also systems software configuration management (SCM). These systems are specifically tailored to manage trees of source code, and have many features that are specific to software development (such as the understanding of native programming languages, or supplying tools for building software).
Subversion, however, is not one of these systems, it is a general system.
