Using it returns certain files and settings—like drivers, registry keys, system files, installed programs, and more—back to previous versions and settings.
What System Restore Does
Restoring your computer to a previous state only affects Windows files. It’s that type of data that’s normally to blame for issues that would prompt you to use System Restore.
If strange things are happening to your computer after a driver install, for example, you might find that restoring the system to a previous state before the driver install, fixes the problem because System Restore will undo the installation.
As another example, say you’re restoring your computer to the state it was in a week ago. Any programs you’ve installed during that time will be uninstalled during the restore process. It’s important to understand this, so you’re not left thinking your computer is in an even worse state when you discover that a program or two are missing after the restore.
What System Restore Doesn’t Do
System Restore does not affect your personal files like your photos, documents, email, etc. You can use it without hesitation, even if you’ve just imported a few dozen pictures to your computer—it doesn’t reverse the import.
The same concept applies to downloading files, editing videos, etc.—all of it will stay on your computer.
Since it doesn’t restore personal files, System Restore isn’t a fall-back solution if you’ve forgotten to make backups of your data or if you want to undo a change you made to a file. An online backup service or a file backup program is what you need to make backups of your files. However, you may consider System Restore a “system backup” solution because it does, in fact, back up and restore crucial system files.
On that note, this feature is also not a file recovery utility that lets you “undelete” your files. If you accidentally deleted a folder full of important documents, and you can’t restore it from the Recycle Bin, System Restore isn’t what you want to use to get those things back. For that, see this list of free data recovery tools for a program made specifically for digging up deleted files.
Unlike the Reset This PC option in some versions of Windows, System Restore doesn’t completely reinstall Windows. You might choose Reset This PC if you need to fix broader operating systems issues, especially problems that started outside the boundaries of what System Restore can fix.
How to Do a System Restore
The tool can be accessed a number of ways in Windows. Once started, this utility is designed as a step-by-step wizard, making it really easy to choose a point in the past, called a restore point, to return your important files and settings to.
See What Is a Restore Point? for much more on restore points, including when they’re created, what they contain, etc.
See How to Use System Restore in Windows for a complete walkthrough of the process.
If you can’t access Windows normally, System Restore can also be started from Safe Mode in all versions of Windows. You can also start System Restore from the Command Prompt.
You can even run System Restore from outside Windows completely via Advanced Startup Options in Windows 11, 10, and 8; or System Recovery Options in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
