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:

• System Restore | Microsoft Docs
• Monitored File Name Extensions | Microsoft Docs (Files with these extensions are monitored by System Restore.)
• Restoring the System | Microsoft Docs ("To restore a system, System Restore undoes file changes made to monitored files, recapturing the file state at the time of the selected restore point.")

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)

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.

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)

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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