A list of the operating systems that offer System Restore.
Links to documents that provide instructions on how to use System Restore.
System Restore
System Restore is a Microsoft® Windows® tool designed to protect and repair the computer software. System Restore takes a «snapshot» of the some system files and the Windows registry and saves them as Restore Points. When an install failure or data corruption occurs, System Restore can return a system to working condition without you having to reinstall the operating system. It repairs the Windows environment by reverting back to the files and settings that were saved in the restore point.
Note: It does not affect your personal data files on the computer.
The utility creates restore points once a day by default. It continually monitors system activity and creates a restore point when particular activities occur. Types of activities that trigger automatic creation of restore points include:
updating hardware drivers
installing new hardware drivers
manual creations of restore points
System Restore is available on the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME)
How to use System Restore on Windows 10
Source: Windows Central
On Windows 10, System Restore is a feature designed to create a snapshot of the device’s current working state as a «restore point» when system changes are detected. If a critical problem occurs after installing a system update, device driver, application, or after modifying system settings incorrectly using the Registry or another tool, you can use one of the available restore points to revert the computer to an earlier point in time to resolve the problem without losing your files.
Although this is a handy recovery tool, for some odd reason, System Restore comes disabled by default, which means that you must enable it before Windows 10 can create restore points automatically or you manually.
In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through the steps to set up System Restore as well as the steps to recover from problems that may be affecting the normal operation of your computer.
How to enable System Restore on Windows 10
On Windows 10, the System Restore feature is not turned on by default, and you must enable it manually using Control Panel.
To enable System Restore, use these steps:
Open Start.
Search for Create a restore point and click the top result to open the System Properties page.
Under the «Protection Settings» section, select the main «System» drive
Click the Configure button.
Source: Windows Central
Select the Turn on system protection option.
Source: Windows Central
Quick tip: Windows 10 can automatically manage the space, but under the «Disk Space Usage» section, you can also use the slider to specify the storage amount to reserve for the recovery feature. You will also find a Delete button, which you can use to remove all restore points, which can come in handy to free up space or when you want to start over with the feature.
Click the Apply button.
Click the OK button.
Once you complete the steps, Windows 10 will automatically create a restore point when applying a new update or when specific system changes are made.
System Restore is not a feature you can enable globally. If you have additional drives you want to protect with System Restore, you must repeat the steps on every storage device. However, remember that this feature is available to undo settings changes. It is not a backup solution replacement.
How to create a System Restore point on Windows 10
If enabled, System Restore will create a checkpoint when it detects system changes automatically. However, if you modify the system configuration, you always want to create a restore point manually.
To create a restore point on Windows 10 manually, use these steps:
Open Start.
Search for Create a restore point, and click the top result to open the System Properties page.
Under the «Protection Settings» section, click the Create button.
Source: Windows Central
Type a descriptive name for the restore point — for example, before modifying the Registry settings.
Source: Windows Central
Click the Create button.
Click the Close button.
Click the OK button.
Click the Close button.
After you complete the steps, you’ll have a way to undo changes in the event that something goes wrong while installing a new device driver, app, or after modifying the Registry.
How to recover using System Restore on Windows 10
When something happens after modifying system settings on Windows 10, you can undo the changes by applying a previous restore point. You can complete this task from the desktop or the advanced startup settings if the system does not boot.
Undo system changes from desktop
If you still have access to the desktop, you can revert changes with System Restore using these steps:
Open Start.
Search for Create a restore point, and click the top result to open the System Properties page.
Click the System Restore button.
Source: Windows Central
Quick note: If the option is grayed out, then it means that the system does not have any restore point available.
Click the Next button.
Source: Windows Central
Click the Finish button.
Source: Windows Central
Once you complete the steps, System Restore will return the device to the previous good working state.
Undo system changes from Advanced startup
If the computer does not boot to access the desktop, you can use Advanced startup settings to use the System Restore feature to undo system changes.
Access Advanced startup
To access the Advanced startup environment to use System Restore, use these steps:
Power on the device.
As soon as the Windows logo appears on your screen, press the power button to interrupt the boot sequence.
Source: Windows Central
Repeat steps No. 1 and 2 two more times. (Or until the device boots into the recovery experience.)
After you complete the steps, you can use the steps outlined below to revert system changes with System Restore.
Alternatively, if you cannot access the recovery environment with the above steps, you can start your device with a Windows 10 installation media, and while in the «Windows Setup» experience, click the Next button, click the Repair your computer button from the bottom-left corner, and then use the steps below.
Undo changes with System Restore
To use System Restore from the Advanced startup environment, use these steps:
Click the Advanced options button.
Source: Windows Central
Click on Troubleshoot.
Source: Windows Central
Click on Advanced options.
Source: Windows Central
Click on System Restore.
Source: Windows Central
Confirm the account passowrd.
Source: Windows Central
Click the Next button.
Source: Windows Central
Click the Finish button.
Source: Windows Central
Once you complete the steps, the changes causing the problem will be removed with the previous snapshot bringing the device back to a good-known working state.
We are focusing this guide on Windows 10, but since this is a legacy feature, you can also refer to these instructions if you are using Windows 8.1 or Windows 7.
Although System Restore is a convenient feature to quickly recover from configuration problems, it is not a feature meant to replace a backup solution or an option to reset the computer to the factory default settings.
More Windows 10 resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
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What Is System Restore?
Use System Restore to undo changes to important parts of Windows
System Restore is a recovery tool for Windows that allows you to reverse certain kinds of changes made to the operating system.
System Restore is used to return important Windows files and settings—like drivers, registry keys, system files, installed programs, and more—back to previous versions and settings.
Think of System Restore as an «undo» feature for the most important parts of Microsoft Windows.
What System Restore Does
Restoring your computer to a previous state only affects Windows files. It’s that type of data that’s normally to blame for issues that would prompt you to use System Restore.
If strange things are happening to your computer after a driver install, for example, you might find that restoring the system to a previous state before the driver install, fixes the problem because System Restore will undo the installation.
As another example, say you’re restoring your computer to the state it was in a week ago. Any programs you’ve installed during that time will be uninstalled during the System Restore. It’s important to understand this so you’re not left thinking that your computer is in an even worse state when you discover that a program or two are missing after the restore.
System Restore doesn’t guarantee that the issue will be resolved. Say you’re only just now experiencing an issue with your video card driver, so you restore the computer back to a few days ago, but the problem persists. It’s possible the driver was corrupted three weeks ago, in which case restoring to just a few days ago, or any point within the last three weeks, will do no good in correcting the problem.
What System Restore Doesn’t Do
System Restore does not affect your personal files like your photos, documents, email, etc. You can use System Restore without hesitation even if you’ve just imported a few dozen pictures to your computer—it doesn’t «undo» the import.
The same concept applies to downloading files, editing videos, etc.—all of it will stay on your computer.
Even though System Restore may remove a program you’ve installed, it won’t also delete the files you’ve made through the program. For example, even if System Restore deletes your Adobe Photoshop installation and Microsoft Word program, the images and documents you may have created or edited with them are not removed as well—those are still considered your personal files.
Since System Restore doesn’t restore personal files, it is not a fall-back solution if you’ve forgotten to make backups of your data or if you want to undo a change you made to a file. An online backup service or a file backup program is what you need to make backups of your files. However, you may consider System Restore a «system backup» solution because it does, in fact, back up and restore crucial system files.
On that note, System Restore is also not a file recovery utility that lets you «undelete» your files. If you accidentally deleted a folder full of important documents, and you can’t restore it from the Recycle Bin, System Restore isn’t what you want to use to get those things back. For that, see this list of free data recovery tools for a program made specifically for digging up deleted files.
How to Do a System Restore
The System Restore tool can be accessed a number of ways in Windows. Once started, this utility is designed as a step-by-step wizard, making it really easy to choose a point in the past, called a restore point, to return your important files and settings to.
See What Is a Restore Point? for much more on restore points, including when they’re created, what they contain, etc.
See How to Use System Restore in Windows for a complete walkthrough of the process.
System Restore is available from within Microsoft Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Me, but not any Windows Server operating systems.
If you can’t access Windows normally, System Restore can also be started from Safe Mode in all versions of Windows. You can also start System Restore from the Command Prompt.
You can even run System Restore from outside Windows completely via Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 and Windows 8, or System Recovery Options in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
Source: Windows Central 
Source: Windows Central 
Source: Windows Central 
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