Each user has experienced a situation of a sudden power outage, a sudden voltage drop, a software failure, damage to system files by viruses, or other emergency situations due to which the computer could not fully boot. One of the solutions to the problem that has arisen can be restoring the operating system using a checkpoint. From the material prepared by us, you will learn how to roll back Windows 10 to a restore point.
What is a restore point
System Restore- a utility utility for Windows OS, which is designed to restore the functionality of the operating system by restoring the state of the computer at the time of creation. After starting the program, it independently restores service files, registry keys, installed programs, user-created documents and other files.
The system for restoring the previous state of a PC running Windows 10 is based on Shadow Copy technology, which allows you to track and restore the initial state of files, regardless of their location.
A restore point can be created:
- at the request of the user;
- automatically after 24 hours;
- when installing drivers that are not digitally signed by Windows Hardware Quality Labs;
- when updating the operating system
Create a restore point
There are several ways to create a restore point yourself:
- Simultaneously pressing the Win + Pause keys
- By right-clicking on the "This PC" shortcut and then selecting "Properties"
- By right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting Control Panel
- After that, select the "System and Security" tab
- And in the window that opens, click on the item "System"
- In the window that appears, click on the "System Protection" item in the left menu
- In the window that opens, you can select the logical drive with Windows installed on it (drive C) and proceed to configure it
During setup, you will be prompted to enable or disable the System Restore utility and the amount of disk space allocated to the utility application
Now, by clicking on the "Create" button, you will start creating a restore point, and in the subsequent window you can set your own name for the checkpoint.
After clicking the "Create" button, the process will start, which will end with the creation of a checkpoint in a few minutes.
Reverting the system to a restore point
After completing the steps described above and getting into the "System Properties" window, you get the opportunity to roll back the system and restore all the files that existed on your computer at the time the checkpoint was created. To do this, press the "Restore" button
Select a system restore point. You can choose either a point recommended by the operating system or any of the previously created ones. In the latter case, put a dot in the item "Choose a different restore point" and click "Next"
From the proposed list, select a point and continue the process of rolling back Windows 10
Confirm confidence in the correctness of the steps taken earlier
Agree to start the operating system rollback procedure
The process of restoring the operating system will start, the successful completion of which will be reported to you by the window that appears
You can view the actions described above in dynamics by watching the video
All computer owners periodically experience problems with Windows after installing the wrong drivers or making changes to the operating system. This problem can be solved by creating system restore points.
A Windows 10 restore point allows you to return your computer to the last stable state of your computer. When you create a restore point, Windows 10 backs up your system files. So, instead of having to completely reinstall Windows after you installed some wrong driver or caught a virus, you can simply roll back the system.
Restore points are created before installing Windows updates, and also automatically at the intervals that you set. The more free hard disk space you reserve for restore points, the more restore dates you will have to choose from.
The system allows you to manually create Windows 10 restore points. This may be required, for example, before installing programs that can somehow disrupt the system. In case something goes wrong, the owner of the computer can always roll back the system to the date when everything was working properly.
Please note that restore points contain only backup copies of Windows 10 system files that affect the loading of the operating system. Personal folders and files are not included in backups. If you want to back up personal files as well, then you need to make a full system image.
Windows 10 recovery settings
In order to view the current recovery settings on your computer, right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel.
Go to the "System and Security" section.
Go to the "System" section.
Click in the left column "System Protection".
The window that opens shows the protection settings for your disks. The status disabled means that no restore points are made for this drive, but enabled when restore points are made.
In my case, restore points are made only for drive C, on which the operating system is installed. In order to change the protection settings, select the disk you are interested in and click the "Configure" button.
At the top of the window, you can enable or disable the creation of Windows 10 restore points, and at the bottom, specify how much disk space you are willing to reserve for storing these backups. The larger the volume you specify, the more restore points will be stored. As this volume fills up, old restore points will be erased to make room for new ones. Usually, it is enough to store 2-3 system restore points.
In order to free up space on your hard drive, you can click the "Delete" button to delete all saved restore points.
Create a Windows 10 restore point manually
In order to create a Windows 10 restore point on the previous System Protection tab, click the Create button.
A window will pop up in which you must somehow name the restore point, in my case, for example, I called it "Restore point before installing an incomprehensible driver." The date and time of point creation will be added automatically. After that, click the "Create" button.
The process of creating a restore point will begin. It usually takes less than a minute. After completion, the "Restore point created successfully" window will appear (see the picture above). Now you can install that obscure driver that I was worried about and, in case of problems, roll back the system using a restore point.
Set up automatic creation of restore points
As mentioned above, Windows 10 automatically creates restore points before installing updates, and also makes it possible to do this manually. But for safety, it makes sense to set up automatic creation of restore points at the time interval you specify, for example, every day.
Right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel.
In the "Control Panel" in the upper right corner, select "View" - "Small Icons" and click on the "Administrative Tools" section.
Open Task Scheduler.
Alternately double-click on the items "Task Scheduler Library" - "Microsoft" - "Windows" - "System Restore".
An SR rule has already been created in the System Restore branch to create Windows 10 restore points. We just have to specify the interval after which this rule will work. Double click on the SR rule.
In the window that opens, go to the "Triggers" tab and click "Create".
In the next window, you can set the period when Windows 10 restore points will be created. You can specify the creation of daily, weekly, monthly, when the computer starts or when it is turned off, and so on.
You should choose the period for creating points based on the reserved hard disk space for storing backups, since when this volume is filled, the newest recovery points will erase the oldest ones.
After you have chosen the period for creating restore points, click OK.
Roll back Windows 10 to a restore point
Now that we have learned how to create restore points manually and automatically, we will tell you how to restore the system after a failure.
There are several ways to roll back the system using restore points - using the Windows 10 interface, using the command line, as well as using diagnostic tools.
System rollback through the Windows interface
The easiest way is when you can run Windows 10. In this case, we do everything as at the beginning of the article. Right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel. Next, go to the "System and Security" - "System" - "System Protection" section. In the System Protection window, click the Restore button.
The Restore System Files and Settings Wizard opens. Click next.
In the next window, check the box "Show other restore points". This list shows all possible restore points. The left column shows the dates when the restore points were created. The middle column has a description so we can identify the point.
As you can see in the screenshot below, the restore point called "restore point before installing the obscure driver" that I created in the second chapter of this article is listed as the last one created.
Finally, the right column indicates the type of creation of the restore point (manual, system, or installation), that is, under what circumstances the backup was created.
Also, you can click on the restore point of interest and click "Search for affected programs". The window that opens will display a list of programs that will be affected by the rollback to this restore point.
When you have selected the restore point to which you want to roll back the system, click "Next".
The Windows 10 restore point is a very important built-in tool that allows you to return your system to a previous working state in case of failures.
The component of Windows that is responsible for system recovery uses a system protection feature that regularly saves information about your programs, drivers, registry, settings, and system files in so-called restore points.
The operating system automatically creates restore points before significant changes to the system, for example:
- installation of programs;
- installation (updating) drivers;
- installing Windows updates.
Another restore point can be automatically created if the last point was created more than 7 days ago. It is also possible to carry out this process manually at any time.
To create a restore point, you must have administrator rights on the computer. Also, keep in mind that a restore point will only be created for those disks on which the system protection function is enabled.
Create a Windows 10 restore point
1. First you need to run the component " System protection". To do this, in the menu Start» start typing the word « dot" and in the displayed list, run the item " Create a restore point».
This is the easiest way to run the component " System protection". You can also do this by opening the system properties window (keyboard shortcut Windows+Pause) and selecting the desired item from the menu on the left.
You can also open system protection through the control panel, but we will not dive into additional methods for launching this component and continue creating a restore point.
2. Next, you will be taken to the tab " System protection" window " Properties of the system". If the buttons Reestablish" and " Create» are inactive, then you have system protection disabled on all drives. You can verify this by viewing the list of available drives and the protection status: " Disabled" or " Included". Click the button Tune».
3. If necessary, enable system protection by selecting the appropriate item. In this window, you can also configure disk space usage and delete all restore points for the current disk. Click the button OK».
4. Now click the " Create”, which should already be active.
5. Enter the name of the point to be created and click « Create". The date and time can be omitted here, because they will be added automatically.
You can see where the Windows 10 restore points are located as follows. On the " System protection" you need to press the button " Reestablish”, then the button “ Further».
Things to know about using restore points
- You should not use system restore points as the main tool for resuscitation of the system. They should be considered as an additional way to restore Windows along with backup and system imaging.
- You cannot create a restore point while in safe mode.
- Restore points are kept for as long as the amount of disk space allocated for system protection allows. If the space runs out while creating new points, the old ones are automatically deleted.
- All Windows 10 restore points are automatically deleted if you disable system protection.
- During a system restore, programs and drivers installed after the restore point was created will be removed. In turn, programs and drivers deleted after the restore point was created will be restored.
All users of computers, laptops sooner or later face problems in the form of errors in the operating system, installing the wrong drivers, programs, viruses, etc. It takes a lot of time and effort to fix them. In fact, to solve most problems, it is enough to use a restore point. A restore point is the result of the process of saving system files. Your system, by default, when installing programs, drivers secretly from you makes backup copies of itself (more precisely, system files). So that if problems arise, you can return to the state when everything was fine and everything worked for you (the process is also called "rollback" of the system). Thus, the first thing I recommend to do in case of problems with the operating system, drivers, viruses is to try to restore the system to the restore point that preceded the problem. That is, there is a problem today, use yesterday's or the day before yesterday's restore point.
What is written below is relevant not only for Windows 10, but also for Windows 7, Widows 8 / 8.1.
How to create a restore point in Windows 10.
To insure yourself, you yourself can create a restore point. To do this, you need to open the System window, you can do this in several ways:
1 WAY. Press the Win+Pause key combination.
2 WAY. Right-click on the "This PC" shortcut, select "Properties".
3 WAY. Right click on the start menu and select "Control Panel"
Then click System and Security.
In the next window, select "System".
It doesn't matter which of the methods you used, the main thing is that you have the "System" window open.
Select "System Protection" from the left menu.
In the Protection Options menu, you will see all your logical drives. Select the disk with the operating system (Disk C) and click the "Configure" button.
Here you can enable or disable the creation of restore points, set the amount of disk space allocated for system backups.
To make a restore point in the "System Protection" window, click the "Create" button
Enter a name that you can understand for the restore point, for example, "before installing the driver for the video card" or "before installing an incomprehensible program", etc.
The restore point creation process will begin.
It will end in a few minutes.
Congratulations, you have made a restore point, now you can start experimenting with the system. If something goes wrong, you can "rollback" the system.
Roll back the system to a restore point in Windows 10.
If a situation arises in which you need to return to the restore point (roll back). You need to open the System window, methods, then select "System protection" in the left menu.
Press the "Restore" button.
You will be prompted for a restore point, if it does not suit you, you can click "Choose a different restore point" and click "Next".
Check the box "Show other restore points" and select the point that suits you and click "Next".
Confirm your choice in the next window and click Finish.
Next, a warning window will appear stating that the recovery cannot be interrupted, click "Yes".
The computer will restart and the recovery process will begin.
After downloading, you will see a window about the successful recovery.
Popular questions and answers.
Will the files be deleted when the system is rolled back?
No. Rolling back to a restore point does not affect your personal files, it only changes system files and installed programs (removes all programs that were installed after the date the restore point was created).
Will a restore point help in the fight against viruses?
Yes. If you know the date when you got the virus and there is a restore point made earlier than this date.
Is it necessary to make restore points manually.
No. The system does this automatically. You can just make sure. But you must make sure that you have this feature enabled.
If you have questions, write them in the comments.
Read how to create, delete or roll back Windows 10 to a restore point. How to restore the system using a restore point. Using a restore point, you can restore Windows 10 system files, as well as the health of the operating system, fix unexpected errors, or return the system to the state at the time the restore point was created.
By default, Windows is set to create a restore point when you install or remove updates, drivers, or applications.
Working with Windows 10 restore points
How to create a Windows 10 restore point
Create a restore point manually:
Set up automatic creation of restore points:
- Run Control Panel / Administration / Task Scheduler.
- In the window on the left, select Task Scheduler Library / Microsoft / Windows / System Restore.
- Right click on file SR in the top middle window and select Properties.
- Select tab triggers in the window that opens.
- Click Create and set the necessary parameters for the creation of the restore point.
How to delete a Windows 10 restore point
Windows 10 restore points are stored by the system on the computer's hard drive. A certain part of it is allocated for them, as the disk fills up, older restore points are deleted and new ones are saved in their place.
The following functions are available for working with restore points:
Deleting all restore points except the last one
Deleting all restore points, including the last one
How to restore Windows 10 from a restore point
Attention: restoring Windows 10 from a restore point only concerns the system and software settings of the operating system. Applying a restore point will remove all programs that were installed after it was created and will not restore previously deleted files.
To restore Windows from a restore point, do the following:
Where are the restore point files located?
All available restore points can be seen in Control panels / Recovery / Starting System Restore.
Physically, the system restore point files are located in the root directory of the system drive (usually drive C:), in the folder System Volume Information. However, users are not granted access to the contents of this folder by default. To get inside the directory, you first need to make it visible, and then get special rights.
For this:
Files and folders that are located here cannot be deleted manually, as they are protected by the system. If you want to clear the System Volume Information directory, then use the standard methods that allow .
A system restore point is not created. What to do?
Check Windows Service Status Volume Shadow Copy. To do this, run:
- Go to Control Panel / Administration / Services.
- Find a Service Volume Shadow Copy.
- Run or activate it, if necessary, set its enable mode "Automatically".
System restore points may not be created on a computer that has two operating systems installed or that has an operating system corrupted by malware or viruses.
How to restore Windows 10 from a restore point using the command line
If you have problems starting Windows 10 in normal mode, then you can restore its performance by running a restore point from command line.
For this:
How to restore deleted restore points?
Windows 10 restore points are stored by the system on the computer's hard drive. Under them, a certain part of it is allocated, as it fills up, older restore points are deleted and new ones are saved in their place.
Also, restore points can be deleted manually - this is described in more detail above.
Often, restoring Windows results in the loss of important files. Restoring Windows using a restore point, rolling back to an earlier version of the operating system, resetting the computer, errors in the operation of backup programs, damage or overwriting of system files, file system errors or bad sectors of the disk - this is not far from the complete list of reasons. deleting data.
The Windows Recovery Console will return the operating system to working order, but may result in the loss of personal files. It is not always possible to restore Windows to working capacity without a clean installation of the operating system, which can also lead to file loss.
Windows 10 operating system restored from a restore point? Leave feedback and ask your questions in the comments.
