You may have read some troubleshooting articles that warn you to create a System Restore Point before making possible changes to your Windows computer. If you don’t know what a System Restore Point means, think of it as a backup of your PC’s settings and other important system files.
Assuming you installed a malicious program or accidentally deleted a registry file and your computer started misbehaving, you can easily undo these (unwanted) changes by doing a Restore. Restore System. That allows you to revert your computer to its original state (known as Restore point) when everything is working smoothly.
In this guide, we will explain how System Restore works in Windows 10 and show you several ways to create a system restore point manually.
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Enable System Protection on Windows
System Protection is the part of the Windows Operating System where restore points are created and managed. To create a restore point, you need to enable System Protection on your device first. Although some computers have this feature enabled by default, others may require you to enable it manually.
To check if you have System Protection enabled on your PC, type “restore point” in the Windows search bar and click Create a restore point in the results.
That will redirect you to the System Protection window, where you can configure System Restore on your device. An alternative route for this moment is to go through Dashboard > System > System protection.
If the Create and System Restore buttons are grayed out and the Protection status next to the Recording System disc is Off, it means that System Protection has been disabled on your computer.
To enable System Protection, select System drive and click Configure.
Option Turn on system protection and click ALRIGHT.
Windows automatically assigns about 3 – 10 percent of your hard drive to System Protection. You can change this by adjusting Maximum use scroll bar. However, make sure that you specify at least 1GB (or more) because System Protection will not run if the reserved disk space is less than 1GB.
If the reserved space is occupied, Windows deletes the older restore points to make room for the new ones. We recommend that you continue with the default disk space that Windows recommends.
The default allocation should be enough to accommodate as many restore points as possible. The more restore points you have, the better your chances of recovering files, settings, and other configurations if your computer crashes.
With System Protection set up, you can now create restore points manually.
Manually create a system restore point
Windows automatically creates a restore point when you enable System Protection. It does so once per week or before important events like Windows update, driver installation etc. You can also create a restore point manually if you are making system changes for your computer. For example, you should always create a restore point manually before make changes to the Windows Registry.
To create a restore point manually, go to the System Protection window (Dashboard > System > System protection) and click Create.
Enter a description in the dialog box and click Create proceed with.
Windows will create a restore point and display a success message when it’s done.
Creation may take several minutes, depending on the file size in the restore point and the performance of your drive.
Create a restore point using Windows PowerShell
There are often multiple ways to get things done on Windows. You can quickly create a restore point in seconds using Windows PowerShell. All you need to do is paste some commands into the PowerShell console; We will show you how.
Type “PowerShell” into the Windows search bar and click Run as administrator about results.
Paste the command below into the PowerShell console and press enter.
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoExit -Command “Checkpoint-Computer -Description ‘Restore Point Name’ -RestorePointType ‘MODIFY_SETTINGS’”
Note: You can replace the “Restore Point Name” placeholder in the command with any description you choose.
Windows will create a restore point when the progress bar hits 100%.
By default, you can only create a restore point with PowerShell once in 24 hours. If Windows shows an error saying “Can’t create a new system restore point because a restore point was created within the last 1440 minutes”, it means Windows automatically created a restore point for you within 24 hours via.
How to roll back changes using system restore
Now that you’ve created a restore point, how do you use it to revert to an earlier point if your PC crashes? Perhaps, you recently installed a Windows update or a network driver that messed up your internet connection. Here’s how to undo system changes using System Restore.
Launch the System Protection window (Dashboard > System > System protection) and click System recovery.
Click Next to launch the System Restore window. On this page you will find a list of all restore points, their description, and the date and time they were created. Windows also labels restore points by “Type” –Handmade restore points are the ones you created yourself while System describes a restore point automatically created by Windows.
Select a restore point and click Next proceed with. Make sure you select the restore point right before the event that caused the problem you’re trying to fix.
Pro tip: Click Scan for affected programs to see a list of apps that Windows will remove during system restore.
If you can’t remember the restore point’s description or there are multiple entries in the list with similar descriptions, check the date/time and select the most recent entry.
Click End on the next page to confirm your selection. Windows will restart your computer, so make sure you close all active applications to avoid losing unsaved files and data.
Can’t find the restore point in the System Restore window? Check this out Troubleshooting guide on how to fix missing restore points on Windows.
Windows won’t start? Here’s how to do a system restore
The technique above shows you how to undo changes with System Restore while your computer is on. But what if your computer won’t boot? Or perhaps Windows boots properly but hangs before you get to the System Restore window? Then how do you restore your device?
Like we mentioned earlier, Windows often offers multiple ways to get things done. So, if your PC doesn’t load Windows properly, you can initiate a system restore from the Advanced Startup Options menu.
Power off your PC and turn it back on. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears on the screen to turn off your PC again. Repeat this three times and your PC will boot into the Windows Recovery Environment.
Windows will diagnose your computer and display one of the following error messages: “Auto Repair could not repair your PC” or “Your PC did not start correctly”. Ignore the error message and click Advance setting to enter the Advanced Options menu.
Next, click Troubleshoot > Advance setting > System recovery and choose your username on the next page.
Enter your account password to continue. If your account is not password protected, leave the password box blank and click Continue. Select a restore point from the list and click Next proceed with.
Never lose important files and settings
You learned how to manually create a system restore point and how to perform a system restore, even if your computer won’t boot. However, you should note that system restore is not a backup solution; it only saves system files and settings, not your personal data.
In addition to creating a restore point manually, we also recommend create a system image backup or recovery CD/USB drive. With these, you can restore your computer (including all installed programs, settings, files, etc.) .
