Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10  

Page 1 of 7 123 ... LastLast
    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10

    How to Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Performance & Maintenance
    05 Mar 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10


    System protection is a feature that allows you to undo unwanted system changes by being able to do a System Restore. System Restore enables users, in the event of a problem, to restore their computers to a previous state (restore point) without losing personal data files.

    Each restore point contains the necessary information needed to restore the system to the chosen state. Restore points are automatically generated when you install a new app, driver, or Windows update, and generated when you create a restore point manually. Restoring won’t affect your personal files in your %UserProfile% folder, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates installed after the restore point was created.

    This can be handy if your PC isn't working well after you recently installed an app, driver, or update.
    • If you have Windows booted in Safe Mode, then you will not be able to turn on or off System Protection for drives.
    • System protection is turned off by default.
    • System protection can only be turned on for drives that are formatted using the NTFS file system.
    • You can adjust the maximum disk space per drive used for system protection. As space fills up, older restore points will automatically be deleted to make room for new ones.
    • When you turn off system protection for a drive, all existing restore points on the drive will be deleted, and new restore points will not be created. You will not be able to use System Restore to undo unwanted system changes on the drive.
    • Personal files in each user account's "C:\Users\(user-name)" folder will not be affected by a system restore.

    See also:

    This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off system protection for drives of your choice to be able to create restore points and do a system restore in Windows 10.

    You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to turn on or off system protection for a drive.


    It is highly recommended to leave system protection turned on for your Windows drive (ex: C: ) to be able to quickly restore Windows 10 back to a previous restore point as needed.

    Restore points are not meant to take the place of backups and system images. Instead it is only an extra method of recovery to have handy as needed. Be sure to always keep updated backups and system images to be safe.



    Contents

    • Option One: Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in System Properties
    • Option Two: Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in PowerShell
    • Option Three: Turn Off System Protection for Drives in Command Prompt
    • Option Four: Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives using a REG file






    OPTION ONE

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in System Properties


    1 Do step 2, step 3, or step 4 below for how you would like to open System.

    2 Open the Win+X Quick Link menu, click/tap on System, and go to step 5 below.

    3 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the System icon, and go to step 5 below.

    4 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Recovery icon, click/tap on the Configure System Restore link, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-recovery.png

    5 Click/tap on the System protection link on the left side. (see screenshot below)

    Starting with Windows 10 build 20161, you will need to click/tap on About on the left side, and click/tap on the System protection link instead.
    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-settings_system.jpg

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system.png

    6 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

    7 Under Protection Settings, select a drive (ex: C: ) that you want to turn on or off system protection for, and click/tap on the Configure button. (see screenshot below)

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system_protection.png

    8 Do step 9 or step 10 below for what you would like to do.


    9 To Turn Off System Protection for Drive

    This is the default setting

    A) Under Restore Settings, select (dot) Disable system protection, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system_protection_off-1.png

    B) Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system_protection_off-2.png


    10 To Turn On System Protection for Drive

    A) Under Restore Settings, select (dot) Turn on system protection. (see screenshot below)

    You will not be able to Turn on system protection for other drives if system protection is not turned on for the Windows "System" drive.


    B) Under Disk Space Usage, adjust the Max usage slider to the maximum disk space you want used for system protection, and click/tap on OK.

    The more Max usage you set, the more restore points you will be able to have available for the drive. Of course, this will use more free space on the drive, so be sure to set an amount that balances your needs.

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system_protection_on.png






    OPTION TWO

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in PowerShell


    For more usage details of the Enable-ComputerRestore command, see: Enable-ComputerRestore | Microsoft Docs

    For more usage details of the Disable-ComputerRestore command, see: Disable-ComputerRestore | Microsoft Docs

    You will not be able to Turn on system protection for other drives if system protection is not turned on for the Windows System "C:" drive.


    1 Open an elevated PowerShell.

    2 Type the command below you want to use into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

    (Turn on System Protection for drive)
    Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive "<drive letter>:\"

    OR

    (Turn off System Protection for drive)
    Disable-ComputerRestore -Drive "<drive letter>:\"

    Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to turn on or off system protection for.

    For example: Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive "C:\"

    If you would like to turn on or off system protection for multiple drives at once, then you can add a comma, space, and another drive letter followed by a colon and a backslash and enclosed in quotation marks like below for both the "C" and "E" drives.

    For example: Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive "C:\", "E:\"


    3 You can now close the elevated PowerShell if you like.

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-turn_on_system_protection_for_drives_in_powershell.png Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-turn_off_system_protection_for_drives_in_powershell.png






    OPTION THREE

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Command Prompt


    You will not be able to Turn on system protection for other drives if system protection is not turned on for the Windows System "C:" drive.


    1 Open an elevated command prompt.

    2 Type the command below you want to use into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    (Turn on System Protection for drive)
    WMIC /Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call Enable "<drive letter>:\"

    OR

    (Turn off System Protection for drive)
    WMIC /Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call Disable "<drive letter>:\"

    Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to turn on or off system protection for.

    For example: WMIC /Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call Enable "C:\"


    3 You can now close the elevated command prompt if you like.

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-enable_or_disable_system_restore_command.jpg






    OPTION FOUR

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives using a REG file


    Special thank you to shiwan0804 for providing this option.


    1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.


    2 To Turn On System Protection for the System "C" Drive

    This is the default setting.

    A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

    Turn_on_System_Protection_for_C_drive.reg

    Download

    (Contents of .reg file for reference)
    Code:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SPP\Clients]
    "{09F7EDC5-294E-4180-AF6A-FB0E6A0E9513}"=hex(7):5c,00,5c,00,3f,00,5c,00,56,00,\
      6f,00,6c,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,7b,00,61,00,30,00,31,00,36,00,30,00,31,00,32,\
      00,65,00,2d,00,39,00,62,00,63,00,33,00,2d,00,34,00,64,00,37,00,31,00,2d,00,\
      38,00,39,00,66,00,31,00,2d,00,31,00,37,00,36,00,35,00,63,00,66,00,62,00,31,\
      00,61,00,34,00,31,00,36,00,7d,00,5c,00,3a,00,28,00,43,00,25,00,33,00,41,00,\
      29,00,00,00,00,00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore]
    "RPSessionInterval"=dword:00000001


    3 To Turn Off System Protection for All Drives

    A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

    Turn_off_System_Protection_for_all_drives.reg

    Download

    (Contents of .reg file for reference)
    Code:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SPP\Clients]
    "{09F7EDC5-294E-4180-AF6A-FB0E6A0E9513}"=-
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore]
    "RPSessionInterval"=dword:00000000


    4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

    5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

    6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

    7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 16,325
    W10Prox64
       #1

    Hi.
    I wonder if you can explain why I am getting this warning after upgrading a W8.1 x64 to W10 home?Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system-restore.png

    The Recovery folder is probably there for 30 days (it is new), but I don't understand why I would get a warning when turning system restore on for drive C? I don't understand.

    Thanks.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Hey mate,

    Recovery, could be for a factory recovery partition.

    The error message for C: indicates that you have a system image saved on that drive. Do you see a "WindowsImageBackup" folder on the root of C? Possibly from another OS.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 16,325
    W10Prox64
       #3

    Brink said:
    Hey mate,

    Recovery, could be for a factory recovery partition.

    The error message for C: indicates that you have a system image saved on that drive. Do you see a "WindowsImageBackup" folder on the root of C? Possibly from another OS.
    Nope, nothing. Using Macrium on an external HDD. I've never seen this before.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Odd. I'm not sure why it thinks you have a system image on C. Especially when you are not able to create a system image on the OS drive by default.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 5,833
    Dual boot Windows 10 FCU Pro x 64 & current Insider 10 Pro
       #5

    System Restore is turned off in 10 by default, which is something new and I read of a lot of complaints. I'm wondering as to why myself. It may be a feature no one was using. It may be they're porting it over to the Settings app. Who knows.

    My question is since I'm dual booting with 2 partitions which are considered separate drives > Could it be one of the reasons they have it off by default so as it doesn't include System Restore of another partition or another drive? I have my System Restores managed by their own OS. Or would it configure not include the other drive(s) if it was on by default upon install of 10 or any other OS for that matter?
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 93
    Windows 10 x64
       #6

    Hey I just found that system restore is not really turned off even if I set it to disabled ? What's the deal ?? I found that I had 30 GB of file in system volume information. Is that a bug because I upgraded ?

    Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10-system-resxtore.png
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Hello Kensiko, :)

    Your System Protection is disabled as set, but the "Max Usage" is also utilized by Windows system image. See the yellow tip box under step 9 below for details.

    Backup User and System Files - Windows 7 Help Forums
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 93
    Windows 10 x64
       #8

    OK I'll enable than disable it, we'll see.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 93
    Windows 10 x64
       #9

    No change. Well, I'll need to clean-up that once every while. I use my own disk image backup to make backups.
      My Computer


 

Tutorial Categories

Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10 Tutorial Index Network & Sharing Instalation and Upgrade Browsers and Email General Tips Gaming Customization Apps and Features Virtualization BSOD System Security User Accounts Hardware and Drivers Updates and Activation Backup and Restore Performance and Maintenance Mixed Reality Phone


  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 10 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 10" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:55.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums