What Does System Restore ACTUALLY Do?

[@Elijah-2000]

System Restore saved my life more times than I have fingers and toes. A great feature especially if you are prone to install suspicious software. Reading the comments, it appears Windows 10, and more so Windows 11 does not always restore successfully. I'm still gloriously happy with my Windows 7, which gets the job done.

[@DouglasWalrath]

🐧

[@Bishop1091]

Windows 7 was built before Microsoft added a bunch of forced apps and tracing software integrated the new OS. You could remove a lot windows features without breaking windows so a system restore worked the best in windows 7. I work in a computer store and have found system restore broke more windows 10/11 installations then it fixed. Even if nothing was wrong from before the restore.

[@DouglasWalrath]

@@Bishop1091 yeah but no security updates

[@at_oussama]

I would rather use something like Sandboxie (or any sandboxing software) to test potentially harmful software, rather than rely on System Restore.

[@energeticyellow1637]

@@DouglasWalrath Its really not that big of a deal if you stay away from fishy websites.

[@pyp2205]

Well this is going to be helpful to know, as I create system restore points when I do something that might potentially be dangerous (I would typically test somethings in a virtual machine before I do it on my main device).

[@Dorumin]

ayo what are you doing with the powershell oc on your avatar

[@chaminda512]

PWSH ❤

[@mintmag8748]

Forget system restore, use an imaging program instead.

[@pyp2205]

@Maximus Gabriel Well I don't really use system restore points to be honest. I mostly create a restore point after something like a feature update or before I install an update that might possibly ruin my device. But I do actually have one of those multi boot drives. Which I use for installing linux onto my devices. And for recovery purposes. Like one time when I was at school, I had a class where the computers didn't have stuff like group policy on it. And one time after I scanned for some corrupted files. I later tried to boot it up. But it didn't boot up, and before I reimagined my drive (we just go up to a computer, and we boot it up to have it run a disk imaging script that would copy the windows 10 installation from another drive). I tried to fix my system with my multiboot drive. And unfortunately I wasn't able to fix it with my multiboot drive. And I ended up having to reimage my drive, which meant I had to reinstall a ton of programs that I use. But I at least tried to fix it without having to have my drive formatted and reimaged.

[@pyp2205]

@@mintmag8748 Well I don't really rely on system restore points. Because I have a multiboot usb drive, and I think it's a better way to fix a system rather than using snapshots (or restore points) to fix your system. Because having the windows iso image on a drive, would give you an option to repair your installation.

[@PhoenixCNSTL]

I'm actually so glad System Restore exists. I had a major problem where an application changed something, which caused my disk to malfunction and won't shut down my laptop, and System Restore solved the problem.

[@EinChris75]

The term you where searching for at 5:30 is "copy on write". The entire file system gets a time stamp put on. Each entry in the master file table gets it as well. And when you start to change a file (or even just a block in a file), that timestamp is checked. And if it's the same as the one of the file system, windows knows that this block represents the state in a VSS snapshot. Then windows duplicates the block (keeping the old in the snap shot) and creates a new one for the current file.

[@Woodzta]

Thanks to Windows ME, I got very familiar with System Restore. Couldn't ask for a better tutorial than having to restore my OS every few weeks.

[@MarkJacksonGaming]

-- All those Kernels that magically appeared and fought each other, right? :^)

[@anon_y_mousse]

It's amazing how after all these years I'm still finding out about features that Windows has and yet doesn't promote the heck out of and just go under the radar. They should promote the shadow copy feature and have some security features on it. What's more, if system restore doesn't backup your user files automatically, they should add that functionality into it so your data can be safeguarded too.

[@laserkeyboardpro4239]

Considering it’s on every computer with windows for the past 20 or so years and is literally an option if something happened to your computer you can click on on the big scary blue screen , and its in your settings ….. it doesn’t need to be promoted .

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@laserkeyboardpro4239 I don't use Windows, so I don't get BSOD's. System restore isn't a feature that I hear people talking about when they complain that Windows has lost their data, so I just assumed it didn't have such functionality. On Linux-based systems, we've got something similar to that in every major distro, easy manual backup functionality thanks to multiple choices of programs over the past 25 years, and even file systems that can handle that functionality.

[@CesarPeron]

One of the most underrated services of Windows ever, I would love if Linux have a feature like this. You should create a Task (Task Scheduler) to have a regular snapshot, that save me a lot to recover files, even against Ransomware. Seriously, we're talking about of one of that services that we must need to have enabled hands down.

[@AlexanderPrussak]

you should look into btrfs which most Linux distros support. you can create snapshots of any folder or the entire filesystem and it also has a bunch of other neat stuff

[@CesarPeron]

​@@AlexanderPrussak I use btrfs instead ext4 since years, but Shadow copies works like a charm, way better for me.

[@telefonmakinesi6467]

Use timeshift

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@CesarPeron You don't even need file system support for it. As @Telefon Makinesi mentioned, there's timeshift, but you could even just use cron coupled with diff and rsync. Could probably even use git if you set it up right, though I wouldn't recommend that.

[@LarcR]

I've learned the hard way that Windows System Restore fails more often than it succeeds. It is now turned off on all my computers. Why take up space with restore points if they aren't reliable? Instead, I make frequent Macrium Reflect backups. They have never failed me.

[@uniktbrukernavn]

I've learned my lesson to not trust system restore. Macrium or something similar is the way to go.

[@Woodzta]

There's some irony in that it basically always worked for me in the Windows ME days. My ME machine was so unstable and prone to some sort of corruption and I had to use it very frequently.

[@copper_canola1215]

You and me, brother. You never know when you will get a virus that could brick your computer no matter how careful you are where it purposely mess with system restore first. I've been using macrium reflect like for about 20 years now. I regularly create images of my windows drive in an external drive, especially before a windows/driver update. It takes a bit of work but a guaranteed rollback exactly to the state when your computer is working perfectly makes it all worth it. Saves me a ton of headache.

[@michaelszczys8316]

What I've learned is to never trust a single thing TheoJoe ever says.

[@thecinemaoflight]

​@@michaelszczys8316 go away hater

[@redcrafterlppa303]

10:12 the windows registry is actually partially stored in the user directory. It is (most likely) still included by file type since .DAT files are (most likely) on the list.

[@Bishop1091]

As someone working in a computer store this helped a few times when I am looking for a time saver solution but personally on my own pc nothing feels better then a fresh install of windows to remove all my experimental mistakes.

[@Klusio19]

I was also wondering at some point, what the heck does that "system restore" does. Thank you Joe!

[@ebaylistinginfo]

That's interesting to know. However, System Restore stopped working for me when I upgraded from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro for some reason. So, I use a hard drive clone program instead to regularly clone my entire C: drive instead.

[@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris]

He said in this video that on Windows 10 it is disabled by default. He also showed how to enable it.

[@ebaylistinginfo]

@@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris Oh I know how to enable it, and that's what I did right away too after switching OS. But it still refuses to work, despite the fact it's all setup correctly to run.

[@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris]

@@ebaylistinginfo Same so I just disable it.

[@user-ir6xh2mx9d]

You might wanna backup your files and fresh install the Windows then it might get fixed and all other small issues you might have. I know it'll take time but it's worth it.

[@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris]

@@user-ir6xh2mx9d That doesn't work for me the whole thing got removed because of GeekSquad aka BestBuy's tech support team.

[@mda5003]

Back with Windows 98 I installed Norton GoBack which continually marked safe points so that the entire drive could be restored to any point as required. Great for trying out stuff that made a mess of the system as you could simply go back to an earlier point in time.

[@BillAnt]

Loved GoBack, saved my butt many times while testing apps. heh Nowadays I use a similar modem app called EaseUS ToDo Backup, which works the same way but faster. and restores everything exactly as it was. Not just some stuff but everything 100%.

[@World_of_OSes]

Those clouds on your desktop wallpaper are moving.

[@_SJ]

@ 2:17 I enabled System Restore a while ago and set the Max Usage at 60% (60.00 GB). Is it advisable to set the Disk Space Usage to 100%?

[@ThioJoe]

You wouldn’t have space for anything else 🤔

[@_SJ]

@@ThioJoe Okay. Got it. Thanks

[@Knards]

I wouldnt set it to any more than 15%. You have it set to 60% of your entire drive

[@NotEvents]

I like to set it to 10GB, I have found that setting the space very large (30+GB) can slow down some procedures. >vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10GB

[@_SJ]

@@NotEvents Thank you

[@PBSA]

System restore did help me at some points, I was deleting users directories to clear up space, and I ended up deleting an windows admin user and some stuff broke before I was able to cancel, but I did a System Restore before that I named "bc_nuke" and everything came back like nothing ever happen, it also helped when I tried to update AMD GPU drivers with their official tool on a, I think at the time, 7 year old computer and it kinda corrupt both it's and intel integrated drivers, used this so I could put my computer in a working condition faster than to remove the drivers and reinstall them while hoping my computer wouldn't freeze up because of the GPU's drivers, it's a laptop that I am still using it, because yes.

[@Renatodonadio]

0:01 System restore was introduced with Windows XP, in the introduction video was shown a kid with a plastic toy hammer hitting on the keyboard of a PC which was left on, scrambling files around out of the display case, then came the elder sister and used the new feature to repair everything 😀

[@sfurgas]

Thanks for this info. I had a problem and Windows 10 could not restore from the restore point in Windows. I figured out that I could run the System Restore from the installation media and that solved the problem. Hope this helps.

[@FeenickzVR]

Oh my god, I haven't seen your videos in so long, I used to watch you all the time in middle school when you still did your joke videos! Glad to see you're still uploading!

[@random_person618]

This inspired me a bit, because I'm a tinkerer and (kind of) a messy guy in terms of gadgets, and I mess with the drivers in device manager or the actual directory. I didn't create restore points before and there have been times where the system refuses to boot due to an incompatible driver, and I just don't have a restore point. Now actually I will regularly create them so I don't mess up anytime soon.

[@kaushik6371]

Very clear explanation 👍

[@ShirlBussman]

Has saved me more times that I can remember. I do count on using this when things go wrong.

[@vwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvwvw9]

Thanks for the Video ThioJoe!

[@hamza2128]

Try restoring from windows recovery of a usb stick. It much better than disabling your antivirus and it almost always results in a successful restore most of the times.

[@redcrafterlppa303]

If you have bitlocker prepare your recovery key. Most people don't have it since their device came with bitlocker fully set up. I was trying to change a forgotten password for a friends laptop last year and I couldn't do it because the drive was encrypted. The recovery environment became much more useless with the introduction of drive encryption (because most people don't have their key) .

[@EliamGuerrero]

One thing that system restore does wrong is that sometimes since it keeps some documments, it means those documments could be storing the app version that the system is reporting, Minecraft Launcher is an example. It says, Cannot Open 16 Bit App, So beware, I had to reinstall some things

[@mintmag8748]

System shadow snapshot (also known as VSS ) is amazing technology, but "system restore" is the worst implantation of it. Imagining programs such as Macrium Reflect or Todo Backup make far better use of this technology than Sys restore. VSS is what allows you to make a clone of your C drive while it is still in use. Further more, said clone can be mounted and even used as a virtual drive without affecting any of the data stored in it. It can also be compressed quite drastically as well. This technology is not available on Linux.

[@redcrafterlppa303]

This might be an interesting challenge to implement on Linux. I mean there must be a way to monitor file changes in Linux. So you only need to write a lightweight service that uses that information and maintains such shadow copy.

[@mintmag8748]

@@redcrafterlppa303 This technology has been around since XP service pack 3. Linux still doesn't have it.

[@redcrafterlppa303]

@@mintmag8748 what's your point? You think it can't be done just because no one did it yet?

[@mintmag8748]

@@redcrafterlppa303 I like some of the software based on the Linux kernel, I think the community is pathetic.

[@dominicskywalker]

If memory serves me right. System Restore was first seen as a feature in Windows ME

[@greg-op2jh]

I didn't realize it used the volume shadow service, half the time I would disable this service because it would constantly be running on my old computer. Thanks for the info!

[@at_oussama]

I remember having a bad time with viruses that actually link themselves into the restore points in order to keep infecting your PC if you ever tried to restore after getting infected. I would prefer that people use third party cloning and backing up data, rather than using Restore, even if they want to do it after an installation.

[@scamchan]

Reboot Restore RX or Toolwiz Time Freeze can both be used as tools to keep systems in a stable state when installing unknown software.

[@WindowsDaily]

Agreed, I use RollBack Rx regularly on my testing machine. Malware could also uninstall uninstall these but I often find that these snapshots are a lot more reliable than the built-in ones.

[@Melody666]

While trying to understand why some people have issues when restoring in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, and complain in my server or in my dms, I've found out 2 possible reasons (not all of them, unfortunately) during my tests: 1) Seems like OneDrive can actually interfere with the restore process. Yes, OneDrive. There is some kind of permissions issue whenever System Restore tries to restore OneDrive, but I still don't know what causes it since it doesn't always happens on every single install. Erasing OneDrive completely from both the OS in the current status and also in the snapshot will fix this particular problem (registry changes not required). Deleting OneDrive from the snapshot was suggested by another tweaker but, in my tests, it worked just fine without erasing OneDrive from the snapshot. 2) When restoring a drive that is encrypted with BitLocker, the restore will fail if allowedinmemorysettings is different than 0x15000075. You can use bcdedit /enum to check the current value and use bcdedit /set allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075 to restore it. Hope this helps some people having trouble with System Restore.

[@MageThief]

I have never used any restore options, I usually do a fresh install of the OS. I do backup and sync my important files to a different drive and the cloud.

[@BillAnt]

Right, but most people don't do fresh installs after years of careful system settings and installing and configuring hundreds of apps. lol

[@GatoLokuras]

Interesting video. Just FYI, I resetted my PC not a while ago and I have Restore Point enabled by default on C drive.

[@shorts9900]

Thanks for spreading information or other things

[@shikhanshu]

always learn something new on this channel!

[@thorvaldspear]

I've been looking for a video exactly like this for a year now

[@JenrikkuAlt]

I've been waiting for this so long

[@machdaddy6451]

I'm a big fan of the System Restore feature. I regularly create restore points. For the first time ever I saw a strange drive that looks like a network drive path. How can I get rid of this strange drive?

[@DJ_G-Rod]

I appreciate this video Joe

[@PabTSM-OfficialChannel]

i love restore points

[@JosephReidNZ]

You are very significant in these videos. What do you do as a job? By the way, I've been watching you for over 4 years!

[@TechHowYT]

For me system restore was actually enabled by default, despite me only finding out about it a couple months ago. I installed Windows 10 in July of last year.

[@williamdavidwallace3904]

I use Paragon BU and Restore. Usually, I back up a whole partition or the OS plus the MS reserved partitions.

[@AlexandriaDawn190]

Thank you for talking about this. I've wondered this too.

[@madd5]

Amazing and useful video as always. Thanks for the tip.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

Essentially it's a snapshot at the file system level. It has been there since shadow copy was introduced. It could be theoretically used to do backups, which is exactly what that half backed, half deprecated "File history" feature in Windows 10 is supposed to do. However since restore can fail and in typical Microsoft fashion the user doesn't need to know what's happening under the hood, Microsoft themselves suggest using third party programs to achieve the same.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Thank you! I've always wanted to know this since Win98 (I think that was the first time I saw it, I could be mistaken). Really appreciate the information.

[@danbromberg]

More times than not SYSTEM RESTORE has saved me from the nightmare of reinstalling Windows and the gazillion OEM software I added on over the years. It's even considerate enough to warn me about what programs it will not restore. So 3 cheers for SYSTEM RESTORE as far as I'm concerned.

[@ronaldw2453]

When you create a restore point yourself and Microsoft do an update they remove all the restore points before it.

[@scsa20]

The File History feature is just shadow copies that is ran on a schedule and is still not a replacement to a good backup. We have a couple of companies that we have shadow copy configured to take a snapshot twice a day for quickly restoring preview copies of documents but they also have proper backups in place for times when shadow copy doesn't have the file.

[@fizixx]

I'd like to see you cover how to restore, say windows 10, from a drive image. Where can/should the drive image be stored, how to perform the restoration, etc.

[@GYTCommnts]

Something important to comment about this is that a lot of people uses the Desktop and other "folders" that are considered folders from the OS, to store personal files and documents, when they should be "temporary" storage. You risk those files to be deleted or changed if you do a System Restore. There are two paradigms about where to store your personal files. Some recommend using the "default" documents, music, etc. folders because nowadays them are more protected by the system. Others claim that those folders are specially targeted by malware. I personally use a specific folder in my disk for personal data, so when I do backups I just need to worry about only one folder (with subfolders of course). But not a lot of people like to be so methodical, so they have files in lots of places.

[@DeathNight77]

Useful video, I love your channel!

[@Desaved]

What about when the VSS file becomes corrupted and you don't know until it's too late? Is there a way to fix that? Is there a way to ensure the integrity of the VSS files over time?

[@Bishop1091]

If I'm not mistaken I think the biggest reason for a VSS file to become corrupted is a faulty hdd/ssd. By this time you should think about replacing your drive and use a external to do a clone backup. Clone back-ups to a external is still the best form of recovery by a long shot.

[@TSTechTalk]

Is a very important feature I have used it 2x in 10 years but its very useful although I have not used it recently

[@MrTurboRotary]

Thank you for this interesting explanation 👍

[@geodelire]

Woooo a new vid ! Continue like that joe your amazing 👍👍👍 Edit: Ty joe for your heart first time i recieve a heart from a big youtuber

[@Eternal_Tech]

Unfortunately, the heart is now gone. If you receive a heart on your comment from a channel owner, and edit the comment, the heart is removed from your comment.

[@geodelire]

@@Eternal_Tech oh )': i didnt know that 😭😭😭

[@roachxyz]

Thanks for reminding me to create a restore point.

[@UNICORNSF3ProgameplayProRACER]

Great video!

[@MAKESIT]

Great video thanks I love it 👍

[@awex7]

i think it’s good it’s disabled by default. gives the user more control over there privacy

[@ford1546]

from personal experience, the windows repair boot cd is not always able to repair windows. or restore point does not always work. this depends on what kind of error you have in windows

[@henok_gk]

I can confirm it does remove directories of program files, even more so if it's under affected programs list. I've had that happen to me more than once on multiple computers.

[@ironeleven]

As someone who bought a QLC boot drive by mistake, I have to wonder if the reason restore points are off by default is an attempt to reduce writes on SSDs.

[@felixdk8727]

Thank you, very useful for me

[@RingZero]

You are using multiple terms such as Shadow copy, Restore point and snapshot - Which one does what ?

[@CmdrKeene]

You should be able to look at existing shadow copies without extra software. Right click any file and choose to view previous versions. At least it was like that in years past. That dialog (at least used to) show both your shadow copies and any copies in file history drove (if configured).

[@anshumishra9421]

Recently my friend forgot main user account password of his machine.I followed some stupid youtube tutorials and accidentally deleted his user account then I am not able to login into administrator / user account. But anyhow i by following more stupid account i am able to login into administrator account then I just done system restore luckily i was able to recover his user account it saved my life . It is very useful tool.

[@anthonysalerno1539]

This saved me many times. What do you think about NMAP can you do a video i think your followers will enjoy it

[@Fr0zenPeanut]

I don't use this feature because I've seen many people complain it never worked properly on Windows 10 (and even W8) - the shadow copies would frequently end up corrupted over time. I don't know about W11, but knowing Microsoft, they probably didn't care about fixing it.

[@JustPyroYT]

Interesting Video! 👍

[@swfswf50]

Wow that is good stuff.

[@flicka25]

Back in the day I used system restore....nowadays i have backups, cloud storage so if i really suspect something heinous I just do a clean install from the get go.

[@umarudoma1811]

why my system restore points all suddenly disappeared in windows 10? I checked there were few restore points a few days ago

[@msh6610]

Haven't used it since the 98/XP days, where it never helped me much. Bsod @ startup was still game over for OS.. And to my experience Windows fixes itself pretty good these days.. + i use OneDrive etc. for backups instead.. and the space for something else.. So not as handy as timeshift in linux etc...(where I break sjitt all the time), but still quite usefull. (and prolly gotten alot better since then...) Thanx for sharing! 👍

[@TrHoniix]

I did this and now i cant access my pc properly what i mean is my screen turns blank and cant type… i cant click nothing

[@sandyfisher5447]

Thanks.

[@scurfie2343]

I've had System Restore work about 50% of the time. I still have it enabled but I don't count on it saving me.

[@WashierPlayz]

I was literally watching this video, and since my computer makes a crackling noise when watching KZbin when plugging in the ac cable, I used the restore point I saved earlier, and it only 5 minutes

[@ManthaarJanyaro]

Well one can also restore his/her personal files also, just make sure you are enabling all system protection on all the drives and under configuration of each drive select "Restore system settings and previous versions of files", that will trigger to restore documents and personal files as well when restoring...

[@redcrafterlppa303]

That's actually a bad idea. Since it restores an old state of all your files, that means it will delete every document you created and undo any modification. You likely lose tons of work if you role that back.

[@ManthaarJanyaro]

@@redcrafterlppa303 As explained in this video before restoring all the files System Restore takes a snapshot just before the the process, and also you can view files and restore them without even restoring the whole system and without any third part app. To do so Right Click on any file or Directory, select Properties and under properties select Previous Versions tab, and open or restore only particular file(s) or Directory... In my experience I was once able to recover all my Data from a virus attack on my PC...

[@iantully8333]

hello thio my windows 10 will not keep the up dates my pc down loads them for 1 1/2 hours then after that it keeps doing uninstalling updates HELP THIO HELP ian

[@Eternal_Tech]

It appears that your installation of Windows 10 is corrupt. Therefore, you may wish to scan the system files and restore the corrupted files. To do this, open up an elevated (Run as Administrator) command prompt and enter the following: *DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth* When this is done, then run the following command: *sfc /scannow* When this is done, restart the computer and then run Windows Update again.

[@roobscoob47]

Thanks, TJ~

[@homercastillo8834]

Most of the time system restore helps me, when I install incompatible software or driver. This is the first time I learn about Shadow copy.

[@josephbond4373]

Should you do a system restore in safe mode if you got a virus online?

[@whatzause]

Good video! I assume you are talking about Windows 10 here? And are any of the links under Windows 10 “Recovery” similar to (or capable of) making a restorable clone of C: on another internal drive? (You see, so far I’ve been too timid to try those.)

[@Yellowcat98]

what i coincidence i did my FIRST system restore ever on my computer because of some themes lagged my pc and completely freezes it

[@YannMetalhead]

Good video.

[@Gigaheart]

Joe, you can see your city's temp in the background.

[@KeeganP.RussShadowCompany]

Been doing system restore points before @ThioJoe made a video on it.

[@Amethyst.]

I got a virus and right as I knew something was off, I restored my system to a few hours before and I think it is gone

[@CnCDune]

System Restore saves a lot of hassle when wanting to use something new to customize windows a bit more than M$ allows, only for that then doing something unexpected. Beware that system restore may also irreversibly revert *some* files and not list them in the "scan for affected programs" window. Admittedly, they aren't files a regular user would touch, but modders like myself *live* in INIs.

[@JustPyroYT]

Yay a new video ^^

[@stormrider01]

For me this feature never worked for me. Always said that the system was not restored properly.

[@louf7178]

Never had to use it, but I thought I noticed my own restore points would be deleted. I now just clone the drive - which I'm overdue.

[@zarkwalker4652]

So does system restore changes back to the old version of folder or the pc

[@xozeintk8093]

Thanks Jeo

[@fredbloggs8072]

I find sys restore often fails in normal windows mode (even with antivirus, firewall & anything else that might interfere with it shut down), but it usually works okay in safe mode. As a result I now always just go into safe mode & run it from there.

[@Angie2343]

I am hoping to get a new computer in the future because Windows 10 is going to end support next year.

[@smft9147]

It’s there to get your hopes up for 20 mins then disappoint you

[@louf7178]

LOL

[@vidpic8311]

Does it consume 16GB of hard drive space? Seems to take up a lot of space . . .