Backup and Restore Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 11

TM21 · Jan 1, 2023

During a Windows Install, I run a whole series of .reg files (and batch files) to turn several things on or off, in Windows. like I may turn Hibernate OFF, but turn some other feature ON.
Going back a ways, I thought you said you could not write a script for setting the System Restore feature to "ON" for Drive C:
If not a .reg script, how about a Batch file? I thought I saw a command to do that, which could maybe be written into a Batch file.

I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to simplify my Installs, as much as I can with the use of Batch Files and Scripts.
Now, assuming that I could indeed turn System Restore ON, for drive C: with a batch file, then how would I set the GB of drive space to use for the restore points. Or would Win-11 just set a default value for that?
I know.....?'s ?'s ?'s. Does it ever end?

Happy 2023!
TM

FBtje · Jan 1, 2023

Brink said:
Were they included in a Windows Backup or system image?

If you included the drive they are on in system protection, then they could get included for that drive.

It's just that it's usually not included if on the OS drive at the default "C:\Users" folder location.

Yes, they were included in a Windows Backup. But then I would expect it saying: Previous versions come from File History or from restore points or from Backup and Restore.

But I can go to sleep peacefully now :) Thank you!

One more question about System Restore. What's the point of turning on System Restore for non-system drives? What exactly does that do?

barreleye · Jan 2, 2023

FBtje said:
One more question about System Restore. What's the point of turning on System Restore for non-system drives? What exactly does that do?

Does it even matter? System Restore has always been a nebulous, unreliable feature. The best thing to do is to turn it off completely and get with an imaging program for your OS drive and a file-based backup program for your data.

Brink · Jan 2, 2023

barreleye said:
Does it even matter? System Restore has always been a nebulous, unreliable feature. The best thing to do is to turn it off completely and get with an imaging program for your OS drive and a file-based backup program for your data.

Agreed. Creating updated system images is the most reliable backup method.

System Restore with restore points are ok to undo something recently, but they are not always reliable.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2023

I have been occasionally looking at the actual usage of System Restore, it went up to 13 GB, I just looked again and it was 0 GB. I wonder what makes the actual usage go up and down like that?

hdmi · Jul 13, 2023

To delete all restore points (same effect as clicking on the Delete button that appears in Option One, Step 6), you can run this from an elevated command prompt or from an elevated PowerShell window:
vssadmin delete shadows /all

To delete all but the most recent restore point, it is possible to use Disk Cleanup, but I wrote a VBScript (see below) that generates a batchfile and opens the batchfile with notepad. Next, in notepad, you can remove only those specific vssadmin delete shadow=<ShadowID> commands from the batchfile that would otherwise delete those specific restore points you do NOT want to be deleted. By doing this, you can effectively choose which restore points are going to be deleted when, next, you run the batchfile (run it as Admin, that is). Don't forget to save your changes in notepad before you run the batchfile.

Notes:

• The info that appears next to the CreationTime is the Type, SequenceNumber and Description (in that order).

• Lines that only have a CreationTime are retrieved from the output of the vssadmin list shadows command.

So, the ShadowID in each vssadmin delete shadows /shadow=<ShadowID> command that appears directly below this same CreationTime is retrieved from this same output.

vssadmin delete shadows

A description of the vssadmin delete shadows command, which deletes a specified volume's shadow copies.

learn.microsoft.com

(To delete only the oldest shadow copy of a specific volume, see the example in the article linked above.)

To see storage space used, allocated space and maximum space for System Protection:
vssadmin list shadowstorage

To change the maximum limit:
vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=<ForVolumeSpec> /on=<OnVolumeSpec> /maxsize=<MaxSizeSpec>
(To remove the maximum limit, omit /maxsize=<MaxSizeSpec> in the above command.)

vssadmin resize shadowstorage

A description of the vssadmin resize shadowstorage command, which resizes the maximum amount of storage space that can be used for shadow copy storage.

learn.microsoft.com

Here is my VBScript, that you can copy-paste in notepad and save as a .vbs file:

Code:

Dim c, i, s, sID, sDate, sFilePath, oShellApp, oSortedList, oWshShell, oExe, oSWbemDateTime, oRPs, o, oFSO, oFile
If WScript.Arguments.Length = 0 Then
  Set oShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
  oShellApp.ShellExecute "wscript.exe", """" & WScript.ScriptFullName & """ a", "", "runas", 1
Else
  Set oSortedList = CreateObject("System.Collections.SortedList")
  Set oWshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
  Set oExe = oWshShell.Exec("vssadmin list shadows")
  Set oWshShell = Nothing
  s = ""
  c = True
  While c
    Do Until Left(s, 46) = "   Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time:"
      If oExe.StdOut.AtEndOfStream Then
        c = False
        Exit Do
      End If
      s = oExe.StdOut.ReadLine
    Loop
    If c Then
      If oExe.StdOut.AtEndOfStream Then
        MsgBox "ERROR!", , WScript.ScriptFullName
        WScript.Quit
      End If
      sDate = Mid(s, 48)
      s = oExe.StdOut.ReadLine
      If Left(s, 23) <> "      Shadow Copy ID: {" Then
        MsgBox "ERROR!", , WScript.ScriptFullName
        WScript.Quit
      End If
      sID = Mid(s, 24, 36)
      oSortedList.Add CDate(sDate), vbCrLF & "vssadmin delete shadows /shadow=" & sID & vbCrLF
    End If
  Wend
  Set oExe = Nothing
  Set oSWbemDateTime = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")
  Set oRPs = GetObject("winmgmts:root/default").InstancesOf("SystemRestore")
  For Each o in oRPs
    oSWbemDateTime.value = o.CreationTime
    oSortedList.Add oSWbemDateTime.GetVarDate, o.RestorePointType & "  " & o.SequenceNumber & "  " & o.Description
  Next
  Set oSWbemDateTime = Nothing
  Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  sFilePath = oFSO.GetParentFolderName(oFSO.GetFile(Wscript.ScriptFullName)) & "\delete-individual-RestorePoints.bat"
  Set oFile = oFSO.CreateTextFile(sFilePath)
  For i = 0 To oSortedList.Count - 1
    s = oSortedList.GetKey(i)
    If Not IsNumeric(Left(s, 2)) Then s = " " & s
    If (Mid(s, 11, 1) = " ") And (Not IsNumeric(Mid(s, 12, 2))) Then s = Left(s, 11) & " " & Mid(s, 12)
    oFile.WriteLine(":: " & s & "  " & oSortedList.GetByIndex(i))
  Next
  oFile.Close
  Set oSortedList = Nothing
  Set oFile = Nothing
  Set oFSO = Nothing
  Set oShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
  oShellApp.ShellExecute "notepad.exe", """" & sFilePath & """"
End If

FirasKing Air · Oct 18, 2023

Is it Possible to get On RegFile

Turn_on_System_Protection_for_all_drives.reg

Brink · Oct 18, 2023

Firas said:
Is it Possible to get On RegFile

Turn_on_System_Protection_for_all_drives.reg

Not really since it depends on specific drive letters.

FirasKing Air · Oct 18, 2023

Brink said:
Not really since it depends on specific drive letters.

I just don't understand. I have system restore on But third party apps say

Please turn system restore on because it is disabled.

the other day I had 6 restore points and when I wanted to restore windows said you don't have any restore points
that was sad and I had to reinstall windows

Brink · Oct 18, 2023

Firas said:
I just don't understand. I have system restore on But third party apps say

Please turn system restore on because it is disabled.

the other day I had 6 restore points and when I wanted to restore windows said you don't have any restore points
that was sad and I had to reinstall windows

System Restore is good for a quick undo of a recent action.

However, it is best to keep an updated system image to have available to restore instead. This would include everything.

FirasKing Air · Oct 18, 2023

Brink said:
System Restore is good for a quick undo of a recent action.

However, it is best to keep an updated system image to have available to restore instead. This would include everything.

Yes I agree But one of my Hard Drives gave out so running Low on space

thecaretaker · Oct 18, 2023

I have system restore turned off and always rely on Macrium backups. But every time I get a major Windows Update, I discover several weeks later when my Marium backup are getting larger that sneakily behind the scenes MS has turned them back on for C drive.

I have added a shortcut now to System Protection to check it has remained off after an update.

Backup and Restore Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in Windows 11

Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in System Properties

Turn On or Off System Protection for Drives in PowerShell

Turn Off System Protection for All Drives using REG file

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