Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10  

Matthew Wai said:

Due to my poor English comprehension, I don't know what you mean by "kicked out".

Sorry, "kicked out" means that something is not compatible; in my case I got an error with "Echo.".

Matthew Wai said:

You can create a restore point without "wmic" and "cmd.exe /k". See: Add Create Restore Point Context Menu in Windows 10
Try to combine my script with yours.

Let me work on this for a while, lots of code...

rdwray said:

Let me work on this for a while, lots of code...

No work is needed. Just run this batch file, which will create a restore point and close the window automatically on completion because "PowerShell.exe" is used instead of "wmic.exe".

rdwray said:

The whole problem with this is that "wmic" will not work without "cmd.exe /k" preceding it which open a second window which will not close.

The whole problem has been solved.

Matthew Wai, this batch file did the job, I just added "vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /Quiet" at the start.

Brink said:

Hello templar,

As a test, are you able to delete it using option 4 instead?

Hi Brink,

It seems to have deleted the entries okay via CCleaner, but when I access System Restore it still shows the same storage space used as before I deleted them. The entries are gone if I access the System restore gui and if I use vssadmin list shadows, However the vssadmin list shadowstorage shows an allocation of 5GB which is what it was before they were deleted.

I was hoping to delete them without any 3rd party app like the elevated command prompt method.

I'm wondering if I don't have sufficient privileges for the vss folder itself.

I'm also wondering whether only the names were deleted and because access is denied they are still somehow there.

Brink said:

The restore point may have been restricted by the system or something, but CCleaner was able to bypass somehow.



It's normal for the allocated size to be like this.

Used = Actually used by restore points.

Allocated = Currently allocated to be used. Once allocated, it rarely goes back down without deleting all restore points.

Max = Max size to be allocated for usage.

Change System Protection Max Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10

Ah, right, thanks Brink.

I wasn't able to delete all restore points by command line vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet as I've got "Access denied" all the time, but then I've created a task to do it automatically for me every 2 months and no problem with the same command, just by adding cmd.exe /c in the beginning (in task scheduler).