Why not Restore Points?

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  1. Posts : 720
    Win10 x64 Pro - 2 desktops, 2 laptops
       #1

    Why not Restore Points?


    I've seen many web pages describing how to turn on Win10 support of Restore Points, but I cannot find anything describing why MS has the support turned off by default. I know some people have had problems with Restore Points in the past (including me) but I also know that they've saved my cookies a few times. Does MS feel they are unneeded? Dangerous? Unreliable? When the alternative option is a full system recovery it seems that going back to an earlier Restore Point is a reasonable first attempt at recovery.
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  2. Posts : 4,511
    several
       #2

    A lot of machines come with tiny emmc drives and similar. If you are not desperate for space, then turn it on.
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  3. xTL
    Posts : 396
    Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
       #3

    You can activate / disable system restore here.
    Control Panel\System and Security\System > System Protection > Configure
    If you don't have any restore points created you can do this here manually aswell.
    By default this feature is turned on.
    Not sure why yours where turned off, maybe a program did this ?
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  4. Posts : 720
    Win10 x64 Pro - 2 desktops, 2 laptops
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Maybe MS got complaints and changed, but I'm pretty sure it was off by default when Win10 first came out. I enabled it as soon as I found out. When searching for A "Why?" explanation (which I couldn't find) I did find confirmation that the default was "Off" (at some point in the past).
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  5. Posts : 26,415
    Windows 11 Pro 22631.3374
       #5

    pokeefe0001 said:
    Maybe MS got complaints and changed, but I'm pretty sure it was off by default when Win10 first came out. I enabled it as soon as I found out. When searching for A "Why?" explanation (which I couldn't find) I did find confirmation that the default was "Off" (at some point in the past).
    It is just not reliable. I never used it in Windows 7 or Vista.
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  6. Posts : 720
    Win10 x64 Pro - 2 desktops, 2 laptops
    Thread Starter
       #6

    I've heard people say it is not reliable but I have not heard what that means.
    I've tried to use it 5 times under Win10.
    • Two attempts were completely successful.
    • One attempt was too recent and didn't fix anything.
    • One "attempt" I couldn't even attempt because the expected Restore Point was missing.
    • One attempt failed because Windows said it couldn't use the Restore Point. (I don't remember the exact wording.)

    None of these attempts caused any problems. One eliminated the need for a full restore. One eliminated the need for a reinstallation of a product that is a bear to install and configure.

    If "unreliable" means the restore may not work then I think it's a chance worth taking.
    If "unreliable" means an attempt my corrupt Windows then I may reconsider.
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  7. Posts : 42,734
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #7

    There's another big thread on this already. Many find that this fails when trying to restore. If it works for you, that's wonderful. Recently I tried to use a restore point; that failed both in normal and safe mode, with an obscure message about some file being locked.

    Then there are two threads about a specific error message that occurred when MS broke something. One I started - very long- and another on 1803 with a recurrence of the same error.

    Feel free to search the forum for these. E.g.
    System Restore fails: AppxStaging %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApp 0x80070091 - Windows 10 Forums

    System Restore Failure AppxStaging 0x80070005 - Windows 10 Forums
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  8. Posts : 4,511
    several
       #8

    pokeefe0001 said:
    If "unreliable" means the restore may not work then I think it's a chance worth taking.
    You are correct. It can be useful. No harm in having it on. There is the added bonus of being able to copy files out of the shadow copies using a little portable program:
    ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista
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  9. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #9

    SIW2 said:
    You are correct. It can be useful. No harm in having it on. There is the added bonus of being able to copy files out of the shadow copies using a little portable program:
    ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista
    You can also right click on a program/file and select "restore previous version". System restore backs up these file types - Monitored File Name Extensions. If you use File History it will also look for changes to other file types if you backed them up with that.

    If you have the space I can't think of a reason not to make restore points. Nothing lost if you don't use it/it doesn't work and it is always good to have another option.

    I use it sometimes if I install a program and then decide I didn't want it. Maybe not the best and certainly not the quickest way to do that but it works OK.
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  10. Posts : 41,412
    windows 10 professional version 1607 build 14393.969 64 bit
       #10

    The current restore points can be viewed by running administrative powershell: get-computerrestorepoint
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