Windows 11 has an interesting hidden version of system restore. A few years ago, I was working freelance for an accountant company, they were using Windows 7 at the time, and I had to set up a RAID because they were terribly afraid of losing even the slightest information.
Everything was going very well until my second week at work, when I went to their site, from my laptop, to check something and found that all of a sudden I was getting weird ads flashing on the screen and I had lost the ability to access my antivirus.
I needed to regain control, without the need to format my PC (and waste more time reinstalling all my apps and files). Here’s what I used: System Restore.
System Restore is a handy feature that takes a kind of snapshot of your PC’s software, registry, and driver configuration at a specific time; this snapshot is called the recovery point. You can then, if necessary, bring the PC back to that moment.
You may lose some of the work done since you created that restore point, but you would also lose any unwanted changes that may have been made without your permission.
Although, in that particular case, the restore point worked for me, I have to admit that, most of the time, I haven’t had much success with restore points. However, starting with Windows 10System Restore appears to have improved significantly. Here’s how to use it with Windows 11.
Windows 11: Configure System Restore
- To use System Restore, you must first make sure it is enabled. Interestingly, in Windows 11, System Restore doesn’t seem to be available from the normal Settings menu. Instead, the best way to find it is, according to Microsoft, to use the search icon in the system tray and type control panel. In the results you will find the Control Panel app; select it.
- If you’ve known Windows for a while, you’ll immediately recognize the old Control Panel, which is where almost all Windows tweaks were used. Look for the search field at the top right and type recovery.
- Under System> Create a restore point
- This will bring up the System Properties window. You will be inside the System Protection tab. If you’ve never used System Restore before, all buttons will be grayed out except Configure. Either way, make sure the available drive (usually drive C š is highlighted, then click Configure.
- Under Recovery Settings, select Turn on system protection. If you wish, you can select the maximum disk space that will be used for your restore points; after that, the older ones will be deleted to make room. Usually 1GB to 15GB is sufficient, depending on the size of the hard drive. Click OK. If system protection is not activated yet, this is where you will need to do it, at the top> Turn on system protection.
- You will return to the system properties windows. It’s a good idea to create a new restore point immediately, so click the Createā¦ button.
Name the restore point in the pop-up window and click Create. After a minute or two, you should see another popup saying The restore point was created successfully. Click Close.
- And you are done! Note that new restore points are only created when, according to Microsoft, āyou install a new app or driver and when you create a restore point manuallyā. To do the latter, for example, if you are going to do something experimental with your system, simply follow the instructions above.
There are ways to have your PC automatically create a restore point every time it boots, but this involves using the PC’s registry; this article will only cover the basics.
Use a restore point
So let’s assume you just installed a new game which then proceeded to flood you with advertisements and other hateful stuff all over your system. It’s time to use your restore point to go back in time before you made that mistake.
- Follow the instructions above to access the Control Panel and Recovery page.
- Select Open System Restore
- A pop-up window titled Restore System Files and Settings will appear. Click Next.
You’ll get a list of all the various restore points that were created, including the date and time they were created, how they were named, and whether they were created manually. Choose what you want to return to.
- If you wish (and it’s a good idea), click Search for Affected Programs. This will give you a list of which programs will be deleted and which may be automatically restored. Close the window and then click Next.
The final confirmation window will list the restore point you’ve chosen, the drive it will affect, and a warning that if you’ve changed your Windows password recently, you may want to create a password reset disk using a USB drive. You will also have another chance to scan the affected programs. Click Finish to begin the process. Once your restore point is confirmed, your system will restore you to that configuration.
#Windows #time