This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off the point-in-time restore feature in Windows 11.
Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.8737 (24H2) and build 26200.8737 (25H2), Microsoft introduced point-in-time restore for Windows. This flexible recovery feature empowers you to quickly roll your device back to a previous state—helping minimize downtime and simplify troubleshooting when disruptions strike. Whether you’re dealing with a widespread outage or a one-off issue, point-in-time restore helps recover your system (including apps, settings, and user files) to get you back to productivity faster.
Point-in-time restore enables users to restore a Windows PC to the exact state it was at an earlier point in time in minutes, using restore points. Restore points are stored locally on the machine and are captured using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Point-in-time restore focuses on fast recovery from recent issues by restoring the full system state captured within the last 72 hours. This feature is designed to help minimize downtime and simplify remediation, without the need for technical expertise or lengthy troubleshooting.
Restore points are captured automatically at a frequency (default: 24 hours) which is configurable by administrators. Restore points are comprehensive and include the OS, apps, settings, and local files (no user data is scoped out of the restore point). All restore points are stored locally on the system and are captured in the background.
- Creation window: When point-in-time restore is enabled or settings change, the scheduler plans the next restore point based on boot timing and the most recent restore point. If there’s no recent restore point, one is scheduled promptly after enablement.
- Retention: Each restore point is retained for a maximum of 72 hours; after that, it’s automatically deleted.
- Deletions: Restore points are deleted, starting from the oldest restore point under the following conditions:
- The max VSS storage configured for restore points is exceeded.
- The device reports low free space conditions that cause VSS to limit or evict restore points.
- If VSS encounters a condition that will prevent it from preserving data that is about to be overwritten all restore points are deleted. For example, the disk full, fails to allocate memory, inability to expand diff area in time, write errors.
Point-in-time restore | System Restore | |
|---|---|---|
| User experience | System settings | Control panel |
| Restore points trigger | Automatic, configurable cadence; user files are included in restore point | Event-triggered or manual only; user files are excluded from restore point |
| Retention | Max 72 hours per restore point | Indefinite (subject to disk usage/cleanup) |
| Target scope | Full system state | System files and settings; app/user data coverage varies |
| Storage impact | Minimizes storage impact by integrating with reserved storage* | Higher impact to storage space |
| Management | Will support robust remote management capabilities | Limited remote management capabilities |
Administrators can configure the feature. The configuration options consist of:
- Feature On/Off, if feature is ON, restore points are automatically captured.
- Restore point frequency controls how frequently restore points are created.
- Restore point retention defines how long restore points can exist on the system before they are automatically deleted (earlier deletion can occur under storage pressure).
- Maximum usage limit sets an upper bound for the total space consumed by all restore points captured by VSS on the device. Space isn't pre-allocated for restore points; any remaining space within the maximum usage limit not used by restore points is available to be used by the system.
Configuration | Defaults | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Feature On/Off | On | On, Off |
| Restore point frequency | Every 24 hours | 4, 16, 12, 24 hours |
| Restore point retention | 72 hours | 6, 12, 16, 24, 72 hours |
| Maximum usage limit | 2% of disk | Percent of disk (min 2GB, max 50GB equivalent) |
Risks
Data loss: point-in-time restore is a comprehensive recovery solution that reverts the entire system—including user files, applications, settings, passwords, secrets, certificates, and keys—to the selected restore point. Any local changes made after the restore point will be lost. Data stored in cloud services such as OneDrive isn't affected.
- The capture of a restore point can fail due to insufficient disk space, system experiencing heavy I/O load, or unstable VSS writer.
- The restoration of a system can fail due to insufficient free disk space, EFS-encrypted files changing, sudden power during restoration, or a corrupted file system.
- Certain configurations, data corruption, or powering off the PC can prevent a successful boot after rollback as that could leave the device in a corrupt state.
- Restoring the system can revert recent security updates or policies; validate and remediate post-restore.
- A restore can only be initiated locally in WinRE.
- BitLocker recovery key is required for local restore if on encrypted volumes.
- There's no guarantee a restore point is captured at the exact frequency configured due to conditions such as: the device is powered off, in sleep or modern standby mode, recent reboot, or disk is full.
- If the PC’s edition change, for example, from Home to Pro or Enterprise, point-in-time restore shouldn't be used. Restoring across different editions/SKUs can lead to system instability or unsupported configurations.
- Usage of EFS encrypted files may affect reliability of point-in-time restore.
- For devices that have multiple volumes, only the MainOS volume is restored.
- Export/mount of restore points as independent images isn't supported.
- Point-in-time restore is not a substitute for a system image.
Point-in-time restore for Windows 11 is now generally available
Restore devices to an earlier state in minutes to keep users productive.
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Point-in-time restore for Windows
documentation for point-in-time restore feature
learn.microsoft.com
Scalable Windows Resiliency with new recovery tools - Windows IT Pro Blog
From isolated issues to widespread outages, new Windows recovery tools help minimize downtime and deliver resilience at scale.
techcommunity.microsoft.com
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable point-in-time restore.
Only devices with an OS volume size of 200GB or greater, will have the feature on by default. The feature will be off by default on devices with OS volume size below 200GB, but admins can turn the feature on if desired.
Contents
- Option One: Turn On or Off Point-in-time Restore in Settings
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Point-in-time Restore using REG file
EXAMPLE: Point-in-time restore in Advanced Startup (WinRE)
1 Open Settings (WIn+I).
2 Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on Recovery on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Perform an available step below: (see screenshots below)
- Under "Recovery options", click/tap on Point-in-time restore.
- Under "Recovery options", click/tap on the View or edit button for Point-in-time restore.
4 If prompted by UAC. click/tap on Yes to allow.
5 Do step 6 (on) or step 7 (off) below for what you want.
6 Turn On Point-in-time Restore
This is the default setting.
A) Turn on Point-in-time restore. (see screenshots below)
B) If wanted. change the Restore point frequency to what you want.
Change Restore Point Frequency for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
This tutorial will show you how to change how frequently restore points are created for point-in-time restore in Windows 11. Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.8737 (24H2) and build 26200.8737 (25H2), Microsoft introduced point-in-time restore for Windows. This flexible recovery feature...
www.elevenforum.com
C) If wanted. change the Restore point retention to what you want.
Change Restore Point Retention for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
This tutorial will show you how to change how long restore points can exist on the system before they are automatically deleted for point-in-time restore in Windows 11. Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.8737 (24H2) and build 26200.8737 (25H2), Microsoft introduced point-in-time restore for...
www.elevenforum.com
D) If wanted. change the Maximum usage limit to what you want.
Change Maximum Disk Usage Limit for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
This tutorial will show you how to set a maximum disk usage limit for the total space consumed by all restore points captured by VSS on the device for point-in-time restore in Windows 11. Starting with Windows 11 build 26220.7271 (Dev and Beta 25H2), build 29576.1000 (Experimental Future...
www.elevenforum.com
E) Click/tap on Save and Close, and go to step 8.
7 Turn Off Point-in-time Restore
A) Turn off Point-in-time restore. (see screenshots below)
B) Click/tap on Save and Close, and go to step 8.
8 You can now close Settings if you like.
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you want.
2 Turn On Point-in-time Restore
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_Point-in-time_restore.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Recovery\PITR\Settings]
"Active_UX"=dword:000000013 Turn Off Point-in-time Restore
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_Point-in-time_restore.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Recovery\PITR\Settings]
"Active_UX"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- Perform Point-in-time Restore of Windows 11
- Change Restore Point Frequency for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
- Change Restore Point Retention for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
- Change Maximum Disk Usage Limit for Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
- See List of Available Point-in-time Restore Points in Windows 11
- Delete Restore Points for System Restore and Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11
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