Backup and Restore See List of Available Point-in-time Restore Points in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to see a list of all available point-in-time restore points 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.

While both point-in-time restore and System Restore use Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to revert a device to a previous state, point-in-time restore introduces a modern approach and focuses on reliability and a broad range of issues.


*Note: Reserved storage is a Windows feature that sets aside a portion of disk space for successful update installation. It helps ensure that updates, temporary files, and system processes can run reliably, without requiring users to free up space.

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 details for preview are outlined:


Starting with Windows 11 build 26220.8062 (Beta 25H2) and build 26300.8068 (Dev 25H2), when you launch point-in-time restore, local admins will see a settings dialog (behind a User Account Control (UAC) prompt) where they can view or change the default restore settings. This experience also now shows a list of restore points available on the device.

Point‑in‑time restore points are stored locally on the system drive in a hidden, protected directory under C:\System Volume Information, created and managed by the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Reference:





EXAMPLE: Point-in-time restore using available restore point








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 Under "Recovery options", click/tap on the View or edit button for Point-in-time restore. (see screenshot below)


4 Click/tap on Yes when prompted by UAC.

5 You will see all available restore points listed under Current restore points. Click/tap on Close when done. (see screenshot below)


6 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below step 3)


3 Each GUID subkey listed under the Snapshots key is a shadow copy ID for a point-in-time restore point. (see screenshot below)







1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)


3 You will now see a list of all available shadow copies (aka: restore points) each with their own unique Shadow Copy ID.

ClientAccessible type = Point-in-time restore point

ClientAccessibleWriters type = System Restore restore point

That's it,
Shawn Brink