Many issues that arise with Windows systems are related to a bad installation of files or a bad update. However, Windows has a “restore” feature that allows you to roll back those installations or updates.
Unfortunately this feature is not active on Windows 10 systems by default. This feature was turned off to assist with saving space on Windows systems. However the space it saves is minimal considering how helpful the feature is for resolving many issues.To check if this feature is turned on is very simple. Just open your start menu and type in “Restore”. This will show a result called “Create a restore point”.
Selecting this will open the “System Properties” window to the “System Protection” tab. Once there it is as easy as just looking in the “Protection Settings” section of that window to see if this is turned on or off. If it is on for your C: drive, then you are already protected. However, I still recommend following to the next section to ensure that you have enough space for those restore points to save.
If protection shows as “off” then simply press the “Configure” button in the lower section of the window. This will then open a new window, select “Turn on system protection” radial button and then adjust the disk usage space if you would like to limit the number of restore points that will be stored. Generally setting this to between 5 and 10 percent of your drive space is a good starting point depending on the total size of your drive.
Once you are done with those settings, press the apply button and then if your system is at a point that you are happy with, select “Create” to create your first restore point of the system. This can be your baseline for you to return your system to a working state should Windows or a Program begin causing issues.
You can enable this feature for all drives installed in your system, however it only affects Windows and Program files. Meaning any personal folders and files will not be affected by restoring a restore point. This also means that System Restore is not a replacement for a true file backup. It is only meant to assist with repairing Windows or Programs that may have been damaged or changed and are now no longer working properly.
We have saved many clients headaches and heartaches using this feature. If you are having issues with a system not booting, or simply acting weird after an update this can possibly resolve that issue and get you back up and running. If you are not comfortable doing these system settings yourself, give FCN a call, we can help you set this up remotely and even get your file backup setup at the same time.
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