Secret Tips For… Restore points

Switch on system protection in Windows 10, schedule and delete restore points and create a desktop shortcut

Use system protection in W10

It’s a mystery why Microsoft deactivated system protection – the automatic creation of system restore points – in Windows 10 (even if you upgraded from a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC that had it enabled). However, you can turn it back on quite easily. Click the Start button, type restore point then select ‘Create a restore point’. Click the Configure button, then select ‘Turn on system protection’, move the Disk Space Usage slider to 2 per cent and click Apply (see screenshot below).

Create a system restore shortcut

You can set up your PC so that creating a new system restore is a simple matter of double-clicking a desktop shortcut. In Windows 10, right-click the desktop, select New, then Shortcut. In the Create Shortcut pop-up box that opens type cmd.exe /k “wmic.exe /Namespace:\\root\default Path Systemrestore Call Createrestorepoint “My Shortcut Restore Point”, 100, 7” (or copy and paste this from www.pastebin.com/raw/xvxrptdy). Click Next, then name it – we called ours ‘System restore point’.

The shortcut will be added to your desktop. Right-click it, select Properties, then click Advanced. Tick the ‘Run as administrator’ box and click OK, then Apply. To change the shortcuts icon (optional), click the Change Icon button and type C:\windows\system32\ imageres.dll. Press Enter, then pick your preferred icon – we selected an image of a PC (see screenshot below left). Finally, click OK, then Apply.

Now you can make a restore point whenever you want to by double-clicking the shortcut on your desktop. You can also pin the shortcut to your Start menu or taskbar by right-clicking the shortcut and choosing ‘Pin to Start’ or ‘Pin to taskbar’.

Delete restore points

Having lots of system restore points that you no longer need can take up hard-drive space. You can’t delete them using Window’s System Restore menu, but you can using Restore Point Creator ( www.snipca.com/23211). On the website click Download Restore Creator Installer, double-click the downloaded file then follow the instructions to install it. Open Restore Point Creator in your Start menu and you’ll see a list of all your system restore points. To delete one, click it to highlight it, then click the Delete Selected Restore Point button (bottom right).

Schedule the creation of restore points

Restore Point Creator also lets you schedule the creation of restore points. Open the program, click System Restore Point Utilities (top left), then ‘Schedule creation of System Restore Points’ in the list. Click OK if you see a message about installing the program somewhere safe.

Next, choose a time interval (Daily, Weekly or Every) then choose a suitable time and day of the week (if applicable). Tick the three boxes in the Additional Task Preferences section to ensure the process runs without problems (for example, if your laptop tries to go into sleep mode). You may also want to click ‘Set Custom Restore Point Name for Scheduled Restore Points’ to name scheduled restore points so you can identify them. Finally, click Save Task.