Check your System Restore settings

By Ed Bott

For many years, System Restore has been one of the most useful tools available for diagnosing and repairing Windows problems. Using System Restore (especially in Safe Mode), you can undo troublesome app installations or driver updates.

But System Restore only works if it's turned on and properly configured. On Windows 10 devices, you might find that System Restore is disabled for the system (C:) drive.

Unless you're convinced you'll never need to use System Restore, I strongly recommend that you turn this feature on. From any supported Windows version, you can check the current configuration and change it if necessary by opening Control Panel > System And Security > System. Click Advanced System Settings in the sidebar on the left and then click the System Protection tab.

Select the C: drive from the Protection Settings list and click Configure. In Windows 8.1 and 10, this leads to a simple on-off switch. In Windows 7, you can choose whether to save previous versions of files as well as system settings. In either case, make sure you reserve enough space for the last restore point.

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