Saving a restore point in Windows 10. How to restore the system from a previously created point

You can find system rollback points through the standard Windows 10 recovery tool, the CCleaner utility, or directly on the disk in the System Volume Information folder. The first two methods do not require special rights, but to gain access to recovery point files on the disk, you will have to configure the owner's permissions.

View available points

You can view the available marks for system rollback through the Windows Recovery Wizard window or the free CCleaner utility.

To find out more information about what changes will be made as a result of rolling back to a specific point, see the point description and the affected programs. Remember that personal data will not be lost during a rollback, but program marks installed after the creation date will be uninstalled.

Similar functionality, but with less detailed information, is provided by the free CCleaner utility. On the “Tools” tab in the “System Restore” section, you can also see what marks the system has made for a possible Windows rollback.

Recovery point storage location

You can find available recovery points in the System Volume Information folder, located at the root of each disk partition for which system protection is enabled. This is a system directory that cannot be deleted, but you can reduce its size if necessary. By default the folder is hidden. You can see it through Total Commander or other powerful file managers, but you still won’t be able to open the directory without additional rights. Therefore, we will do without file managers and simply set up access to the system folder.

Open Computer and go to drive C. You will see a pale System Volume Information folder. When you try to open it, a message will appear stating that you do not have enough rights. But you want to see where system restore points are stored in Windows 10, so that restrictions do not become a hindrance.

Right-click on the System Volume Information directory. Open properties.
Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
Click Continue to view the folder properties with administrator permission. For everything to work out, you must be logged in to the system under an administrator account.
In the window that appears, you can see that only the system has permission to access the folder where the Windows 10 restore points are located. To get permission for your account, click Add.
Click Select Subject. In the window that appears, enter the user name under which you are logged in to the system and click “OK.”
Set the type to Allow and accept it to the folder, subfolders and files with Windows restore points. Give all permissions and click OK to save.

After gaining access, you will be able to open the System Volume Information directory. Inside you will see system restore point files.

All users of computers and laptops sooner or later encounter problems in the form of errors in the operating system, installation of the wrong drivers, programs, viruses, etc. A lot of time and effort is spent to eliminate 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 and drivers, secretly 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 was working (the process is also called “rolling back” the system). Thus, the first thing I recommend doing in case of problems with the operating system, drivers, or viruses is to try to restore the system to the restore point that preceded the problem. That is, the problem arose 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 Windows 7, Windows 8 / 8.1.

How to create a restore point in Windows 10.

To protect yourself, you can create a restore point yourself. To do this, you need to open the System window; you can do this in several ways:

1 METHOD. Press the Win+Pause key combination.

2 METHOD. Right-click on the "This PC" shortcut, select "Properties".

3 METHOD. 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 method you used, the main thing is that you have the “System” window open.

In the left menu, select "System Protection".

In the Protection Settings 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 recovery 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 recovery point name that you understand, for example, “before installing the driver on the video card” or “before installing an incomprehensible program,” etc.

The process of creating a restore point 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 “roll back” the system.

Restore 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, Methods window, then select “System Protection” in the left menu.

Click the "Restore" button.

You will be offered a restore point, if you are not satisfied with it, you can click “Select another restore point” and click “Next”.

Check the box "Show other recovery points" and select the point that suits you and click "Next".

Confirm your choice in the next window and click "Done".

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 indicating the successful recovery.

What is a Windows 10 restore point

A point is a saved copy of system settings for a given date or event, which allows you to roll back the Windows 10 system. The OS saves data about the settings of the main drivers and files. And restores them if necessary, regardless of their new location and condition.

"Checkpoints" are created according to the following scenarios:

Direct user request
installing drivers that do not have a digital signature Hardware Quality Labs
automatically every 24 hours
OS update

How to perform a system rollback on Windows 10

First of all, you need to open the "Control Panel". You can do this in several ways:
After that, go to the viewing type - categories
Click on "System and Security"
Select "System"
In the left column, click on the line “System protection”
Select your system drive (with the Windows icon) and click on the configure button
Check the "Enable system protection" checkbox and indicate the amount of space that you are willing to allocate on your hard drive to create a copy of the OS (we recommend that you allocate at least 20GB if your hardware allows). Confirm "OK"
After that, click on the “Create” button. The parameters will be saved and the process of creating a checkpoint will begin (usually takes no more than 5-10 minutes).

System rollback procedure

If it loads

Restoring a conditionally working OS is quite simple.

When the system won't boot

In a situation where the computer does not boot at all, you can try to get into the recovery environment by holding down the Shift+F8 keys while the OS is loading. But achieving the desired goal will not be easy. Few people manage to press these keys at the right time due to the reduced boot time of the latest versions of Windows. As soon as the computer starts to boot, you need to quickly press the Shift key, and then frantically fiddle with the F8 key. After training, perhaps the efforts of some will be rewarded.

It is much easier to enter this environment either through the installation disk or through a specially created disk.

Below we will consider both of these options and roll back the “ten” to the recovery point.

Using the Windows 10 installation disc

It doesn’t matter which installation DVD (or flash drive) is on hand - with the same edition of Windows 10 that is installed on the computer, or with a different one, in any of these cases the issue with access to the recovery environment is resolved. Moreover, for these purposes you can use the Windows 8.1 installation disk or even the test edition of Insider Preview, which is available completely free of charge on the Microsoft website.

Insert the installation DVD with either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 into your computer's drive, or connect a bootable USB flash drive if the distribution package is stored on it. from the appropriate media. Click "Next" in the first window of the system installer.

Select "System Restore" at the bottom of the window.

The same recovery environment will appear in front of us, in the menu of which we need to select one or another action. We need a diagnostic section.

Creating a Windows 10 Recovery Disc

If you don’t have an installation disk with system versions 8.1 or 10 at hand, you can’t do without involving a second computer device in solving the problem. And instead of waiting for the image with the distribution to be downloaded from the Internet, it’s easier to create a Windows 10 recovery disk using its standard tools. Naturally, this requires that the same Windows 10 be installed on the second computer device. In general, the availability of such a disk must be taken care of in advance. This way, the resuscitation disk, recorded on a flash drive, will always be there for you if problems arise with loading your computer.

To create a disk, go to the control panel. The shortest way to it is to call the context menu on the Start button.

At the top of the control panel window (right) is the search field. Write in it a key query to search for the desired section and select this section.

We need the first function - “Create Disk”.

The program will warn that all existing data on the flash drive will be destroyed. Click “Create”.

Now enable the BIOS to boot from the desired media - from a flash drive. After loading, you will see the same recovery environment designed to resuscitate the OS. Further steps will be exactly the same as in the previous case.

In what cases is it impossible to roll back Windows 10 to a restore point?

As already mentioned, the Windows rollback process may not always complete successfully, and this applies not only to situations involving the recovery environment, but also when we are talking about the usual launch of this process in the system properties window. If viruses damage important files of the rollback points you created, most likely the only way out of the situation may be, if not reinstalling the OS, then at least returning it with the loss of all settings and programs.

Sometimes it will not be possible to successfully roll back an operating system using a recovery environment due to reduced functionality. And this, by the way, is one of the reasons why you should not use homemade Windows builds. Often the latter are designed only for installing Windows from scratch, without the ability to return to a previous OS state. The functionality of the system's bzhcap is cut out by assemblers, supposedly for the purpose of optimization. In this case, it will not always be possible to revive the operating room even with the help of third-party Live disks. But even in the case of a pirated build of Windows with reduced functionality, various kinds of problems can be foreseen by stocking up on a backup copy of the system and bootable media in advance using third-party backup programs.

Have a great day!

And so, if suddenly your operating system began to work unstable, or something in it stopped working, the computer began to freeze or reboot chaotically, then do not rush to reinstall Windows. The first step is to try to roll back to a point in time when your Windows was working normally. Users, of course, rarely create restore points until they encounter problems. Therefore, one can often rely on automatically created Restore Points.

Restore Windows 10 to working condition using System Restore

I repeat again: a rollback is only possible if you have previously created restore points. Follow these steps:

Run Control Panel:

Select Recovery:

After clicking Finish, the recovery will start.

Now you just need to wait a few minutes (usually 10 minutes) until Windows rolls back the computer to the previously saved point. First, you will see a window informing you that the rollback process has started:

Then, you will see a message on a blue background:

Once the procedure is complete, the PC should reboot and you will see the message “The computer has been successfully restored” on the screen:

Method 2: Roll back Windows 10 to a restore point if Windows won't start

If your computer stops booting and you don't have any system image created by third-party software like AOMEI Backupper, you can still try using System Restore. I’ll say right away that this doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try. To do this you will need to follow these steps:

We hope this manual helped you roll back your PC to a point in time when the operating system was working normally.

The Windows 10 operating system, like previous versions of Microsoft software, has the function of restoring the computer's system files to key values. If problems occur after installing new software or drivers, you can restore your computer's settings if you set a restore point in advance. Unlike previous versions of the operating system, in Windows 10 the restore point is not created obviously, which is why many users forget about such an important function.

Creating a restore point for a modern Windows operating system is done in the system properties menu. The instructions below are relevant for the operating systems Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7, in which the principles of creating a restore point are almost identical. Attention: Create an operating system restore point only if you are sure that the computer is working flawlessly.

The restore point is created in System Properties, which can be accessed in several ways.

Through the Windows 10 control panel at the following path: “Control Panel” - “System” - “Advanced system settings”;
Via the command line: Press the Windows key combination + R and in the window that appears, enter the command “sysdm.cpl”.

Now, if problems arise during the operation of the operating system, you will have the opportunity to restore it to the state in which it was at the time the restore point was created. We recommend creating Windows 10 restore points only when you are completely confident that the system is working correctly.

How to restore Windows 10?

To restore Windows 10 parameters and system settings from an access point, you must perform the following sequence of actions:

As you can see, restoring a computer on the Windows 10 operating system is very simple, the main thing is to keep several current recovery points in the system memory. We recommend creating restore points weekly or after all significant changes made to your computer.