A with earlier versions of Windows, System Restore allows you to ‘rewind’ your Windows installation to an earlier working state, without affecting your documents. This is possible because Windows automatically saves Restore Points when something significant happens, such as installing a Windows Update or a new application — the idea being that if it goes wrong, you can return to the last Restore Point (or an even earlier one) to get things going again.
The snag is that System Restore is disabled by default in Windows 10, so here’s how to set it up and use it.
- Open System Restore
Search for system restore in the Windows 10 Search box and select Create a restore point from the list of results. When the System Properties dialog box appears, click the System Protection tab and then click the Configure button.
- Enable System Restore
Click to enable Turn on system protection and then use the Max Usage slider to determine how much of your hard drive to use to store Restore Points — 5% to 10% is usually sufficient — and click OK. If you ever need to create a restore Point manually (just before you start messing with any system settings, for example), return to this dialog box and click the Create… button, otherwise Windows 10 will create them automatically.
- Restore your PC
Whenever you want to return to a Restore Point, open the System Properties dialog box again (see Step 1), click the System Protection tab and then click the System Restore… button. Follow the on-screen instructions and select the desired Restore Point when prompted. You can also click the Scan for affected programs button before going any further, to see what might change on your PC afterwards. When you’re happy to proceed, click Next.