System Protection ON/OFF differences in Feature updates

MeAndMyComputer · 20 Jun 2018

Opinions please.
Sometimes I’d like to be able to explain to people I help as to what’s going on. For those whose computers need System Protection to be turned ON, it’s confusing them as to why.
Is there rhyme or reason or technicalities as to how it’s determined that some computers react differently.
I’ve been monitoring them on a few computers I’ve been involved in recently.

The information I’m including in this thread applies to Feature update 1803, but I’ve seen the same differences before: I do not know if the differences apply only to Feature updates but I don’t recall such differences in Cumulative updates.

Recently my brother asked me to check out his computer.
Ran Belarc as I was interest on what his computer consisted of in one easy to read simple report.
Noticed Version 1803 (build 17134.112) Installed: 5/13/2018
To me that’s fine but to him he had no idea of what that means.
Then I checked out the System Restore points.

System Protection ON/OFF differences in Feature updates-sr-06-16-18.jpg

He has no idea what that is either but it was interesting to me he did not have to turn on System Protection and he is the only one using his computer.
But 16 days after Version 1803 (build 17134.112) was installed an Automatic Restore Point was created.
--- I wish I had another computer to monitor to see if it might be a common occurrence.

I have monitored whether System Protection needed to be turned ON or was automatically ON on a few computers updated to Feature update 1803.
OFF 3 (All of these had been upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10)
Automatically ON 3
--- One of these had been upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10
--- One of these had been upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10
--- One of these is my brother’s new computer that came with Windows 10

Josey Wales · 20 Jun 2018

I stopped using System Restore while still in Windows 7. it is not reliable and often does not restore everything and unless you manually create a restore point you have no idea when Windows will do one. It takes up space on SSD drives that are somewhat costly. I Turned it off and started using Macrium Reflect to image my entire drive. This takes less than 5 minutes and I image to a external hard drive that I keep for that purpose. When I started using MR their free version was not all that great so I bought it and it has turned into the best investment I ever made. It has saved my system many times from failed updates while in The Insider Program. It has never failed and it can be trusted to do what they say it will do.

dalchina · 20 Jun 2018

Whilst you may be able to create restore points, there's no guarantee that restoring them will work when you need it to.

It's a great idea, in being independent of user data. But as has been said many times, don't solely rely on it.

Note that you can schedule e.g. a daily restore point if you so wish (see the tutorial section). I have that set up, but also use Macrium Reflect. SR won't help you when your disk fails or is inaccessible.

Some cite RollbackRX:
RollBack Rx Home | Horizon DataSys Corporation

Josey Wales · 20 Jun 2018

dalchina said:

Whilst you may be able to create restore points, there's no guarantee that restoring them will work when you need it to.

It's a great idea, in being independent of user data. But as has been said many times, don't solely rely on it.

Note that you can schedule e.g. a daily restore point if you so wish (see the tutorial section). I have that set up, but also use Macrium Reflect. SR won't help you when your disk fails or is inaccessible.

Some cite RollbackRX:
RollBack Rx Home | Horizon DataSys Corporation

It was a great idea too bad that it never worked as intended.

RolandJS · 20 Jun 2018

Thanks for the reminder that System Protection ON = System Restore Points making ON :)
I need to remember that.

MeAndMyComputer · 20 Jun 2018

Thank you for your opinions. On my original intent as to "Is there rhyme or reason or technicalities as to how it’s determined that some computers react differently". My new intent now is: it is what it is.

I am and have been an MRF user for years and wish the users I help would do so also or an alternate reliable choice. I've never had to use MRF for a problem on my computers but have used it when having to recover from an experiment that didn't go well. On SR points I still keep them on.

But my focus is on helping people to know SR is available and is based more on how they use (well, miss-use) their computers. Hardly anyone create System Image backups: a few of them have done the built one but they're on their own: I won't help them attempt a recovery because too many of them would end up blaming me for failing something that's a natural built in system: however, I will help the few who agree to use MRF properly. And BTW, I put whatever decisions are made and potential consequences in writing and leave them with a copy.

davidhk · 20 Jun 2018

Here is what I understand, and I could be wrong on that...…..
The System Protection will be turned OFF if the system is upgraded from one Version to another; i.e. from ver 1709 to 1803.
The System Protection will NOT be turned off if it is just an update from one build # to another within the SAME version; i.e from build 17134.83 to 17134.112 of the same ver 1803.

MeAndMyComputer · 21 Jun 2018

davidhk said:

Here is what I understand, and I could be wrong on that...…..
The System Protection will be turned OFF if the system is upgraded from one Version to another; i.e. from ver 1709 to 1803.
The System Protection will NOT be turned off if it is just an update from one build # to another within the SAME version; i.e from build 17134.83 to 17134.112 of the same ver 1803.

"The System Protection will be turned OFF if the system is upgraded from one Version to another; i.e. from ver 1709 to 1803."
--- My monitoring has shown different results
"The System Protection will NOT be turned off if it is just an update from one build # to another within the SAME version; i.e from build 17134.83 to 17134.112 of the same ver 1803"
--- That has been my experience so far.

Please note: my monitoring and experiences are not limited to my 2 Windows10 computers, the information includes other people's computers also. With that said, I'm not going to keep up with the monitoring and observations I've see over the last few months but I was just wondering if I could see a pattern. In having done some internet searches there's nothing available to answer to the purpose of this thread. But my basic approach when trying to help people, provide them with at least a chance to recover from some situation in which system restore might be helpful. But "it is what it is" does apply in the end.