How to Create A Restore Point in Windows 10

How to Create A Restore Point in Windows 10.

You’ve probably read several troubleshooting articles that suggest creating a system restore point before making potentially drastic changes to your Windows computer. If you don’t know what System Restore Point means, consider it a backup of your PC settings and other important system files.

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Let’s say you accidentally installed malware or deleted a registry file and your computer starts malfunctioning, you can easily undo these (unwanted) changes by performing a system restore. This allows you to return your computer to its original state (called a restore point) when everything was working smoothly.

In this guide, we will explain how System Restore works in Windows 10 and teach you several ways to create a system restore point manually.

Enable System Protection on Windows

System Protection is the section of the Windows operating system where restore points are created and managed. To create restore points, you need to first enable System Protection on your device. While this feature is enabled by default on some computers, on others you may need to manually enable it.

To check if system protection is enabled on your computer, type “restore point” in the Windows search bar and click “Create a restore point” in the results.

This will redirect you to the System Protection window, where you can set up System Restore on your device. An alternative way to this point is through Control Panel> System> System Protection.

If the System Restore and New buttons are grayed out, and the protection status next to the system drive is Off, this means that system protection is disabled on your computer.

To enable system protection, select the system drive and click Configure.

Select “Turn on system protection” and click “OK”.

Windows automatically allocates 3-10 percent of your hard drive to protect your system. You can change this by adjusting the Maximum Usage slider. However, make sure you assign at least 1 GB (or more), because the system protection feature will not work if the reserved disk space is less than 1 GB.

If the reserved space is occupied, Windows will delete the old restore points to make room for the new ones. We recommend using the default disk space recommended by Windows.

The default allocation should be sufficient to accommodate as many recovery points as possible. The more restore points you have, the higher the chances of recovering files, settings, and other configurations should your computer ever run into a problem.

After configuring system protection, you can manually create restore points.

Manually Create a System Restore Point

Windows automatically creates restore points when you turn on system protection. This is done once a week or before important events such as Windows update, driver installation, etc. You can also manually create a restore point if you make changes to your computer that change the system. For example, it is always recommended to manually create a restore point before making changes to the Windows registry.

To manually create a restore point, go to the System Protection window (Control Panel> System> System Protection) and click Create.

Enter a description in the dialog box and click “New” to continue.

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Windows will create a restore point and display a success message when finished.

The creation process may take several minutes, depending on the size of the files in the restore point and the performance of your disk.

Create a Restore Point Using Windows PowerShell

There are usually many ways to do something on Windows. You can quickly create a restore point in seconds using Windows PowerShell. All you have to do is paste a few commands into the PowerShell console; we’ll show you how to do it.

Enter “PowerShell” in the Windows search bar and click “Run as administrator” in the search 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 of your choice.

Windows will create a restore point when the progress bar reaches 100%.

By default, you can only create one restore point using PowerShell once every 24 hours. If Windows displays an error that says, “Cannot create a new system restore point because it was already created in the last 1440 minutes,” it means that Windows has automatically created a restore point for you in the last 24 hours.

How to Recover Changes Using System Restore

Now that you’ve created a restore point, how can you use it to revert to an earlier point if you run into problems on your computer? You may have recently installed a Windows update or a network driver that has broken your internet connection. Here’s how to undo system changes using System Restore.

Open the System Protection window (Control Panel> System> System Protection) and click System Restore.

Click Next to open the System Restore window. On this page you will find a list of all restore points, their descriptions, and the date and time they were created. Windows also labels restore points by “Type”. Manual restore points are those that you created yourself, while System describes a restore point automatically created by Windows.

Select a restore point and click Next to continue. Make sure you select a restore point just before the event that caused the problem you are trying to fix.

Pro Tip: Click the Scan for Affected Programs button to view a list of applications that Windows will remove during the system restore process.

If you cannot remember the description of the restore point, or there are several items with similar descriptions in the list, check the date / time and select the most recent entry.

Click Finish on the next page to confirm your choice. Windows will restart your computer, so make sure you close all active applications to avoid losing unsaved files and data.

Can’t find a restore point in the System Restore window? Refer to this troubleshooting guide to learn how to fix missing restore points in Windows.

Windows Wonâ€™t Boot? Hereâ€™s How to Perform a System Restore

The above method shows how to undo changes using System Restore while the computer is on. But what if your computer won’t start at all? Or maybe Windows boots correctly but crashes before you get to the System Restore window? How, then, do you restore your device?

As we mentioned earlier, Windows often provides several ways to get what you want. So, if your computer does not boot Windows properly, you can run System Restore from the Advanced Startup Options menu.

Turn off your computer and turn it on again. Press and hold the power button as soon as the Windows logo appears on the screen to shut down the computer again. Repeat this three times and your computer should boot into Windows Recovery Environment.

Windows will diagnose your computer and display one of the following error messages: “Automatic Repair could not repair your computer” or “Your computer did not start correctly.” Ignore the error message and click Advanced Options to enter the Advanced Options menu.

Then click on Troubleshoot> Advanced Options> System Restore and select your username on the next page.

Enter your account password to continue. If your account is not password protected, leave the password field blank and click Continue. Select a restore point from the list and click Next to continue.

Never Lose Important Files & 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, it should be noted that System Restore is not a backup solution; it only saves system files and settings, not your personal data.

In addition to manually creating a restore point, we also recommend creating a system image backup or recovery CD / USB drive. With their help, you can restore your computer (including all installed programs, settings, files, etc.) to a previous state if your computer gets damaged to such an extent that it cannot boot Windows.