For many users, the ability to restore the system to an earlier point is something of a panacea, and it can really be a very effective method to stop your PC from giving you problems in certain situations. However, it is not a miracle cure that will save you from all ailments, so let’s see how it works and when you should use it and when not to use it.
This is how System Restore works in Windows 10 and 11
No matter what version of Windows you have on your PC, “System Restore” has been a tool that has been inherent in Microsoft operating systems for many years, and it’s also enabled by default. For users who are not very computer savvy, it can be a fairly effective lifesaver, since it has the particularity that, as long as it is active, it starts every time a substantial modification is made to the PC, such as after installing a program, after updating Windows or after installing new drivers.
How it works is quite simple: in essence, System Restore creates an image of your system’s configuration whenever a significant change is made, which, as we said, can be during the installation of your system. a program, driver or after Windows Update. The system image is created BEFORE installation, because the idea is that you can roll back changes if something goes wrong. However, you can also create restore points manually (we’ll see how soon).
For this to work, you must reserve some of your computer’s storage to accommodate these “images”, which are not system images as such, but rather a copy of the complete configuration. This way a lot of space is saved, because if these were full system images we are talking about, at the very least you would have to reserve a portion of the storage equal to everything you occupied at a given time. time, something that would obviously be too much.
If necessary, users can use this utility to attempt to restore the system to a previous version. To do this, from Windows you can click on Start and type “System Restore” (you will get to “Create a restore point”, it does not matter), and from the window that opens, you can both start the restore process and go to setup, as well as manually creating a restore point as we mentioned earlier.
In the image we put above, you can see the options you have:
- This option will take you to the System Restore Wizard. Here you can choose between the restore points available, where you will also be told which programs will be affected (for example, if you installed software that gave you problems, it will appear there so you know the system will be restored to a point before installing such software).
- In this option you can configure the behavior of the tool. Essentially, it’ll let you toggle its automatic operation on and off, and you’ll also be able to set the percentage of your storage you want to set aside to save those “pictures” we mentioned earlier. It is advisable to reserve at least 1% of your storage.
- This option is used to create a restore point manually, nothing more and nothing less.
Is it advisable to leave this option activated?
As always, everything has its pros and cons, and System Restore is no exception. The biggest advantage is clear, and that is that it allows you to have a second chance when you install something (whatever) on the PC that ruins its operation, something that can be useful, honestly, for the vast majority of users. .
The disadvantage is that it does not always work well, or rather it must be said that it does not always solve the problem. There are times when the PC stops working well not because we have installed something or because we have updated Windows, but because we have done a wrong configuration or for any other reason, in which case this tool won’t help us. There are also times when it fails, and we’re not sure why that happens, but it usually has to do with corrupted files (in which case we’ll have to find another solution).
Apart from that, and although the impact is quite minimal, it must be taken into account that it is necessary to reserve a small part of the storage to save the system images (as we said, it is generally 1% , which is really very small). Also keep in mind that it has a slight impact on system performance, because when we install something, a new image is created.
In fact, none of the “downsides” of System Restore are too noticeable, and having some sort of lifeline in return is worth it. Therefore, we personally recommend that you do not disable this feature, because it does not harm or have a strong impact on the system, and it can save you from having to format the PC several times.
