Restore points being deleted automatically

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For some reason, my restore points seem to be getting deleted automatically.

At the end of September I had 4 restore points – 2 Automatic restore points and 2 that I had manually created. All of those have now gone and I currently have 3 Automatic restore points dated 5th/14th/23rd November and 1 that I manually created today.

System restore shows that the maximum disk space for system protection is set at 62GB and my 4 restore points only take up 4.7GB.

Yes, I did check the box “Show more restore points” 🙂

Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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Windows maintenance?

Why do you want to keep restore points?
You should have an image backup if you want to be able to revert.

cheers, Paul

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samak

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“Why do you want to keep restore points?” It seems to be a quick and easy way to go back to where I was if I make a small change.

“You should have an image backup if you want to be able to revert.” I do, but a restore point seems quicker and easier if it fixes any problem that may arise.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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phaolo, windbg, geekdom

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Yes, indeed, always try the simple repair before trying the complicated repair.

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samak

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In searching around a bit, I saw a few sites that said restore points in Windows 10 are kept for less than 90 days. They are automatically deleted (by system maintenance I suppose).

--Joe

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phaolo, samak

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I am Win10/Pro, 21H2.

I’ve been following this post because I checked my restore points and found that the ones I had manually created were gone, too.

I always make a restore point for each of the updates I install after MS DEFCON gives the go-ahead. (I know that updates can be uninstalled via Control Panel>Programs>Programs and Features, but as added insurance I create restore points, too).

I use Control Panel>System Security>Backup and Restore (Windows 7) monthly to back up my files and make a system image (because I want to have access to Previous Versions). A year’s worth of restore points that it has created plus a restore point from having installed TurboTax 2022 last week and a recent automatic system restore point are there, but ones that I manually created, the most recent on Nov 6, before installing the October patches (less than 90 days ago), have disappeared.

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samak

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@WCHS –

I always make a restore point for each of the updates I install after MS DEFCON gives the go-ahead.

So does Windows. An automatic thing that it (Windows Update/Windows) does during the initial phase of installing an update is to launch the executable (vssvc.exe) that creates a restore point. Immediately after the restore point’s creation, WU then proceeds to install the update. On my machines, it (the restore point’s creation) happens quickly enough that if I blink, I might miss it.  😉

This might explain why some of your manually created restore points seem to be missing.

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joep517 wrote:

In searching around a bit, I saw a few sites that said restore points in Windows 10 are kept for less than 90 days.

Yes, I saw that as well but it must have changed because mine disappeared in less than 60 days. Odd that MS don’t document this somewhere obvious.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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I’ve noticed this too on quite a few machines. One thing I did notice, and confirm, is that Carbonite Backup deleted all restore points when it ran on a client’s machine. Disabled it for a couple weeks and restore points didn’t get deleted. Uninstalled and installed Backblaze and no more issues. Even with that, it seems there are less restore points than there should be each week.

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FYI: Here’s a small PowerShell program I wrote to retrieve Restore Point Information.

Get-RestorePoints

It can be found on my Shared OneDrive folder.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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windbg, geekdom

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RetiredGeek wrote:

FYI: Here’s a small PowerShell program I wrote to retrieve Restore Point Information.

Does this tell you more than Create a Restore Point>System Restore>Next>Show More Restore Points?

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No. However if you set up a shortcut to run it it’s a lot less clicks and in an easier to read format. It also allows you to specify the type of restore point you want so you don’t have to wade through them all. Give it a try and see for yourself.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Give it a try and see for yourself.

I have never run a PS script before, so I have some questions, which I have posted as a separate topic <here>.

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OK, I have given it a try. I’ve posted the results here.

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I checked today and the Automatic Restore Point from Nov 5th has gone, which implies that they are being deleted after approximately 24 days.

Yet another thing which MS doesn’t allow you to control because they know what’s best for everyone.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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windbg

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A restore point from 3 weeks ago is of no value IMO. If you need to go back that far, restore your image backup.

cheers, Paul

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RetiredGeek

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It very much depends on what you use your computer for. Since a system restore will not delete personal files such as documents, pictures, music or videos, it would be perfectly adequate for my needs without invoking the nuclear option of overwriting everything with an image backup. That is Plan B.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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phaolo, windbg, geekdom

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Keep making your restore points. Sometimes mine periodically disappear. When I discover that has happened, I immediately create a “starter” restore point and go on. I try to make sure that there’s always at least one restore point on my system.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
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online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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I had this issue when I first got my new laptop. I had created several restore points as I was first getting it all set up and then found that most had been deleted – something about Win 10 only keeping one per 24 hours? In any case, I did some searching and what I found was a registry key that seemed to fix the problem.

I’m not in any way advocating that anyone do any registry tweaks – just wanted to point to what I did try, where I found the info, and the results I got. Hopefully one of the AW registry gurus can look at this and add any thoughts or warnings. All I can say is that I made the following change about 4-5 weeks ago and all of the restore points I have created are still there – none seem to have been deleted.

Instructions can be found at Winaero and at the ElevenForum (works for Win 10 too).

The location is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore

This value: “SystemRestorePointCreationFrequency” needs to be set to zero.

Screenshots below of my registry and my restore points. Note that these are all manual restore points that I made – none were automatic. Not sure if that would affect anything in the way they are kept.

Again – I really don’t know a lot about the registry, and am not advising anyone to make this change – just wanted to point out that this does seem to be a way to keep more restore points.

 

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WCHS, windbg, samak, geekdom, Alex5723

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LHiggins wrote:

Yes, that is what happens – I can make several in one day if I want now. But somehow, it also doesn’t seem to delete them on any schedule – or at all it seems – and the span right now is more than 30 days.

I am Win10/Pro 21H2 (still).

It’s been only 4 days since I changed the Restore Point Creation Frequency to 0 (zero) using the link that LHiggins provided and choosing to do the Powershell (Admin) command.

Here’s a snapshot of the Restore Points that were recorded BEFORE the change and AFTER the change. Unlike LHiggins, I have Restore Points still listed BEFORE the change and they are mostly ones created by the backup program I use (Backup and Restore (Windows 7) at Settings|Update & Security|Backup|Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7)), although a few recent ones are also there. And unlike LHiggins, AFTER the change, not only the ‘Manual’ Restore Points but also the ‘System’ and the ‘Install’ Restore Points are saved.

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The registry key you refer to limits how often you can take a manual restore point, not how often they are deleted. The default value is 24 hrs., i.e. W10 will only allow you to take one restore point every 24 hours.

Setting it to 0 removes this restriction.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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WCHS, geekdom, LHiggins, windbg

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Yes, that is what happens – I can make several in one day if I want now. But somehow, it also doesn’t seem to delete them on any schedule – or at all it seems – and the span right now is more than 30 days.

As I said, I don’t really know a lot about that registry edit, but it did seem to stop my restore points from being deleted and did eliminate the 24 hour restriction.

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windbg

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LHiggins, thanks for clearing up this mystery. I ran into the same problem and wondered what was going on.

When making a long series of configuration changes (registry, group policy, settings UI, power shell scripts, command line utilities, batch files, driver installs, O&O Shutup, etc), I like to keep around multiple restore points until things settle down, just in case.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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LHiggins

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Update: after having had 2 restore points deleted after 24 days, I added the registry key mentioned by LHiggins in post #2502358 above.
It made things worse! The next restore point was deleted after only 18 days. The oldest one I have now is a manual one I created 16 days ago, so it will be interesting to see if it also disappears in 2 days’ time. If so, I think I’ll delete the registry key.

You would think there should be an easy way to control this important process.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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samak wrote:

You would think there should be an easy way to control this important process.

You may “control” the process by assigning enough storage (4TB?)
I too wish for an option to set number of restore points to keep.

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As I said in my original post “System restore shows that the maximum disk space for system protection is set at 62GB and my 4 restore points only take up 4.7GB.”
So I should be able to have about 52 restore points. No control there !

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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Alex5723

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As I understand it the reason restore points are being deleted under Win10 is that MS have changed the default action of the standard System Restore (SR) scheduled task – with no ability to over-ride. If you allow the standard SR task to run it creates a new restore point and then cleans out any restore points over 10 days old (this applies from 21H1 – older versions used 17 days) – regardless of the amount of disk space allocated for the System Restore shadow copies.

The SR scheduled task runs the program “srtasks.exe” located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder – with the internal parameter “ExecuteScheduledSPPCreation”. The time period (for culling old restore points) is hard coded into this executable and none of the legacy registry settings (for System Restore) will over-ride this change. The best you can do is to Disable the “System Restore” scheduled task which prevents this automatic culling of restore points.

Obviously by disabling this standard task you loose the automatic scheduled Restore Point creation this Task was designed to provide – but you eliminate the main cause of old restore points disappearing. You will now need to remember to create restore points using “Create a Restore Point” (available via Search in Win10) which does not trigger the automatic culling of old restore points. Restore points triggered by some program updates will still occur (and shouldn’t trigger a restore point cull) – but this depends on the installer requesting a Restore Point, which is becoming less common with current programs.

Note however Microsoft have a nasty habit of resetting default (Microsoft) Scheduled Tasks during Feature Updates – so this Task can be automatically re-enabled without your consent – resulting in the loss of all restore points over 10 days old.

Testing with Win10 21H1 shows that if you allow the SR task to run all System Restore Points are automatically deleted by the system once they reach 10 days old. The exception is the last remaining Restore Point – which I believe remains until the next Feature Update is installed. All restore points for previous Win10 versions are automatically deleted – as they cannot revert a Feature Update. So unless you are manually creating Restore Points on a regular basis – then in most cases you are likely to have only one Restore Point available in the event of a problem.

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