How-To

Configure Windows 10 to Automatically Create a System Restore Point on Startup

By Brian Burgess

Published September 23, 2018

Having a Windows 10 restore point is important if you need to recover your PC. Here is how to make sure you have a fresh one each time you start up the PC.

Before making any big changes to your system like tweaking the Registry or swapping hardware, or updating system drivers or settings, it’s important to create a system restore point first. Here is how to make Windows automatically create a system restore point every time you start up your PC.

Now, it’s worth noting that Windows 10 automatically creates a restore point for you before a significant event like installing a new driver or before a feature Windows update. And you can certainly create your own restore point any time you want. But if you want to make sure you’re staying on top of things, this will create a new one without having to think about it. This will help make sure you have the freshest restore point that you can go back to in case disaster strikes and you need to recover your system.

Auto Restore Point Startup

The first thing you want to do is make sure the Restore Point feature is turned on. For whatever reason, Microsoft has decided to ship Windows 10 out with System Restore disabled by default. To make sure it’s on, hit the Windows key and type: system restore and hit enter. When the System properties window pops up, click the “Configure” button and check “Turn on system protection” and then click Apply. For full details on turning it on, check out our article on how to enable system restore on Windows 10.

Next, you will need to disable the system restore frequency to allow Task Scheduler to create a restore point automatically each time you start up your PC.

To open Registry Editor, hit the Windows Key + R and type: regedit and hit Enter or click OK.

Now head to the following path:

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

Right-click on SystemRestore and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name the key:

SystemRestorePointCreationFrequency

Give it a value of 0. Click OK and close out of Registry Editor.

Next, you’ll need to create a new task in Task Scheduler. To open it, hit the Windows Key and type: task scheduler and select it from the results or just hit Enter. When it opens right-click Task Scheduler Library and select “Create Task” from the menu.

Make sure the General tab is selected and in the “Name” field type in something that helps you identify the task. For example, I used Auto System Restore Startup. But you can use whatever works for you. Then under the “Security Options” section select Run whether user is logged on or not and check Run with highest privileges and click OK.

Then select the Triggers tab and click the New button.

On the Edit Trigger screen, set the “Begin the task” drop-down menu to At startup from the list of options and click OK.

Next, click the Actions tab and then the New button and use the following:

Actions: Start a program

Program/script: powershell.exe

In the Add Arguments field enter the following command and click OK:

-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Checkpoint-Computer -Description \"My Restore Point Startup\" -RestorePointType \"MODIFY_SETTINGS\""

Now, under the Condition tab, under the Power section clear both boxes for AC and battery power. Note that you will need to uncheck “Stop if the computer switches to battery power” first.

Then when you click OK, you will be prompted to enter your admin password.

After you’ve completed all the steps you will see the new task appear in the Task Scheduler Library. And provided you did everything correctly; a new system restore point will be created automatically every time you start up your PC.

To verify it worked, restart your PC and wait for 10 minutes while a restore point is created in the background. You can continue to work as you normally would, and then open System Restore and select the “Choose a different restore point” option and you will see the restore point was created at the time of startup.

It’s also important to note that you can set Windows 10 to create a restore point before a Windows Defender scan. This also provides a redundant method in making sure you have current and up-to-date system restore points. And, if you want to manually create a restore point when you think one is called for, check out our article on how to save time by creating a system restore desktop shortcut. That allows you to create one with a simple double-click.