How to permanently disable system protection?

Edwin said:

Does the 'DisableSystemRestoreConfig' reg tweak work or is it just to prevent users from changing settings?

You have a good memory, blimey :) Yes it does work...

Set to "0"

Code:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> disable-computerrestore "C:\"
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Set to "1"

Code:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> disable-computerrestore "C:\"
disable-computerrestore : The command cannot disable System Restore on the C:\ drive. You may not have sufficient permissions to perform this operation.
At line:1 char:1
+ disable-computerrestore "C:\"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Disable-ComputerRestore], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.DisableComputerRestoreCommand

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Still might break programs that rely on VSS (like Macrium) though.. Here is the link btw https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/283073

I'm certainly no expert :) but giving these methods a careful read they all say that they allow you to disable the ability to turn on/off system protection/restore. In other words, in the case where you want to ensure that users of the system cannot change the setting. I realize that it is semantics but I think that is different than what I am looking for and that is a way to permanently turn off system protection/restore.
So far it has been off for me for several days now (no effect whatsoever on the ability of Macrium to run as it runs every day on my system) so it appears that VSS does not require system protection/restore to be on. In fact after reading a bit more about VSS it looks like system protection/restore uses/is dependent on VSS but not the other way around.

Hi,

Windows Update creates Restore Points for Updates, so that is presumably when it gets turned back on, so that a Restore Point can be created for you to go back to if necessary.

It does so when System Restore is already set to ON. By default it is set to OFF and in my case it always stays in that state unless I change it myself.

So, if TS has no idea what resets it I suspect his changes aren't stored properly and that's why I always turn off "Fast Start" (or whatever it's called) when I tweak a machine.

Just my two pence.

Cheers,

Looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. Found another thread on the same subject - https://www.tenforums.com/performance...tml#post502102

Hi,

I'm well aware of it which is why we need to find out what it is that's overriding system setting without asking your permission first. That sure isn't normal behavior.

Either that or the changes you make aren't saved correctly but then that would happen to other changes you make as well although it's often hard to tell what and why etc.

Still might break programs that rely on VSS (like Macrium) though..

No, it won't wont but it doesn't help TS either since he then will be no longer able to revert any changes made to System Restore.

Cheers,

It's been over a week now and system protection/restore has stayed off. In that time I have updated a few drivers, bios, and installed 2 applications and updated a couple more. There have been no Windows updates, at least none that required a reboot. I'll keep monitoring it.

I'm still experiencing this problem. I still have not been able to determine exactly what keeps turning system protection back on. Sometimes it stays off for many weeks and so I sort of get tired of checking. Then, at some point I check and...WTF it's back on. As I mentioned before, I can think of no other setting that, once turned off, is turned back on without any notification. Very strange.

I have tried it with and without that setting. It makes no difference. The only thing that setting does is disable the wizard. In other words, in the case where you want to ensure that USERS of the system cannot change the setting. It apparently does not prevent the setting to be changed programatically (via software).

wags1 said:

It apparently does not prevent the setting to be changed programatically (via software).

No, it wouldn't.

The setting is saved in the registry (if you look at Shawns link above it has the .reg files to change it).

If you run a program that has administrator privileges then it can update it. There is nothing you can do about that apart from not allowing elevated programs (or scripts) to run.

You could try changing the maximum space allocated to restore points to zero - that may help - but again a program or PowerShell script run as Administrator could change it.

EDIT - if you want you can also turn off system restore using this PowerShell command, then reboot):

Code:

Disable-ComputerRestore -drive "C:\"