How to use System Restore in Windows 10

Imagine that you installed new software or a new driver on your PC but after you installed it, your PC started hanging a lot or started behaving unexpectedly. What to do then? Windows 10 offers a feature called a system restore using which you can make your PC normal again. Read on this article to find out.

System restore takes all the PC settings, apps, and drivers back to a certain point in time. This is usually done when a newly installed app or driver or a newly changed setting causes the PC to hang a lot or causes unexpected behavior. Doing system restore performs a kind of an undo operation on these changes and the PC becomes normal as before again. However, you will be able to perform a system restore only when the system protection is turned on for your PC.

See also: How to lock screen on Windows 10

Steps to check if system protection is turned on:

To check if system protection is turned on or not and to turn it on if it is turned off, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel (if you can’t find it, you can just search for it in the search box on the taskbar).
  2. Type recovery in the search box of the control panel and select Recovery.
  3. ‘System Properties’ will open when you double-click on ‘Configure System Restore’.
  4. Select the hard disk partition on which the Windows operating system is installed.
  5. Double-click on ‘Configure’.
  6. Now the ‘System Protection’ dialog box will open.
  7. Click on ‘Turn on system protection’ in that and click ‘Apply’ and then click ‘OK’.
  8. Now your system protection is turned on.

Now since the system protection is turned on, regularly automatic restore points will be created. Also, new restore points will be created when you install a new app or driver.

Steps to create a system restore point manually:

Even though system restore points are created automatically, you might want to occasionally create the restore points manually. To do so, just follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Control Panel (you can search it in the search box on the taskbar).
  2. In the search box of the Control Panel, type recovery, and select Recovery.
  3. Double-click on ‘Configure System Restore’. Then ‘System Properties’ will open.
  4. Click on the ‘create’ option.
  5. A new dialog box with the title of ‘create a restore point’ will open.
  6. Here, you should give some description of the restore point that you are creating. This is asked so that later when you are restoring the system using system restore, then you will be able to identify this restore point.
  7. Click on the ‘create’ option in this dialog box.
  8. Now, wait for some time until the system restore is created.

Steps to do a system restore in Windows 10:

To restore your PC to a previously created restore point, follow these steps:

  1. First, you need to go to the Control Panel.
  2. In the Control Panel search box, type recovery and select Recovery.
  3. Double-click on ‘Open System Restore’.
  4. Now, ‘Restore system files and settings’ will open.
  5. Click on the ‘Choose a different restore point’ option and click ‘Next’.
  6. Checkmark the ‘Show more restore points’ option.
  7. Choose a restore point from the list.
  8. Click on the ‘Scan for affected programs’ option.
  9. A list of programs will be shown all of which will be deleted if you choose to do this system restore.
  10. If you are all right with their deletion, click ‘Close’ and then click ‘Next’.
  11. Click ‘Finish’.
  12. Now your system will be restored to the state of the chosen restore point.

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