How to Create a System Restore Point in Windows 10
System protection (if turned on) is a feature that allows you to perform a system restore that takes your PC back to an earlier point in time, called a system restore point. This can be handy if your PC isn't working well and you recently installed an app, driver, or update.
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.
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 how to create a restore point manually at any time in Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to create a restore point.
When you create a restore point, it will create a restore point for all drives that you have system protection turned on.
If you have Windows booted in Safe Mode, then you will not be able to create a restore point.
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.
Restore points are stored in the hidden protected OS System Volume Information folder in the root directory of each drive you have system protection turned on.
Restore points are saved until the disk space System Restore reserves is filled up. As new restore points are created afterwards, old ones are automatically deleted.
If you turn off system protection (the feature that creates restore points) on a disk, all restore points are deleted from that disk.
When you get a new large or feature update for Windows 10, all restore points will automatically get deleted in the process of the update since the old restore points will be incompatible with the new Windows Update.
Contents
- Option One: To Create a System Restore Point in Control Panel
- Option Two: To Create a System Restore Point in PowerShell
- Option Three: To Create a System Restore Point in Command Prompt
1 Do step 2 or step 3 below for how you would like to open System.
2 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the System icon, and go to step 4 below.
3 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Recovery icon, click/tap on the Configure System Restore link, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
4 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.
5 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.
6 Make sure that you have system protection turned on for all drives that you want included in the restore point.
7 When ready to create a restore point, click/tap on the Create button. (see screenshot below)
8 Type a description you want to help you identify the restore point. The current date and time are added automatically. Click/tap on Create when finished. (see screenshot below)
9 Windows System Protection will now create a restore point. (see screenshot below)
10 When successfully created, click/tap on Close. (see screenshot below)
11 You can now close the System Properties window if you like. (see screenshot below step 7)
To see more usage options for the Checkpoint-Computer command in PowerShell, see: Checkpoint-Computer | Microsoft Docs
By default, you will only be able to create a system restore point once every 1440 minutes (24 hours) using this option unless you change the SystemRestorePointCreationFrequency DWORD to how often you want instead. 0 minutes will allow you to always be able to create a system restore point without any time limit.
1 Open an elevated PowerShell.
2 Type the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press [key[Enter[/key]. (see screenshots below)
Checkpoint-Computer -Description "Your Description" -RestorePointType "Type"
Substitute Your Description in the command above with any description (ex: "MyRestorePoint") you want for the system restore point.
Substitute Type in the command above with a parameter in the table below that best specifies the type of restore point.
Parameter to use in command Type APPLICATION_INSTALL Install APPLICATION_UNINSTALL Uninstall DEVICE_DRIVER_INSTALL Install MODIFY_SETTINGS System
3 When finished, you can close the elevated PowerShell window if you like.
By default, you will only be able to create a system restore point once every 1440 minutes (24 hours) using this option unless you change the SystemRestorePointCreationFrequency DWORD to how often you want instead. 0 minutes will allow you to always be able to create a system restore point without any time limit.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press [key[Enter[/key]. (see screenshots below)
wmic /Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call CreateRestorePoint "Your Description", 100, 12
Substitute Your Description in the command above with any description (ex: "MyRestorePoint") you want for the system restore point.
For example:wmic /Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call CreateRestorePoint "MyRestorePoint", 100, 12
3 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- How to Enable or Disable System Restore in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10
- How to Enable or Disable System Restore Configuration in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10
- How to Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 10
- How to Do a System Restore of Windows 10
- How to Undo a System Restore in Windows 10
- How to Add a Create Restore Point Context Menu in Windows 10
- How to Make a 'Create System Restore Point' Shortcut in Windows 10
- How to Change System Protection Maximum Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10
- How to Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10
- How to Create System Protection shortcut in Windows 10
- How to Automatically Create System Restore Point at Startup in Windows 10
- How to Automatically Create System Restore Point on Schedule in Windows 10
- How to Change System Restore Point Creation Frequency in Windows 10
- How to Add System Protection Context Menu in Windows 10
- How to See List of All Available System Restore Points in Windows