How to Do a System Restore in Windows 8

   Information

System protection is a feature that regularly creates and saves information about your computer's system files, programs, drivers, and registry settings as restore points for all drives that have system protection turned on. You can use these restore points to do a system restore to return these items to an earlier point in time without affecting personal files (ex: anything in C:\Users\(user-name) folder). Restore points are created just before significant system events, such as the installation of a program or device driver. They're also created automatically by Windows using a scheduled task once every seven days if no other restore points were created in the previous seven days, but you can create restore points manually at any time.

This will show you how to do a System Restore to undo system changes by restoring Windows 8, and all drives system protection is turned on, to a selected previous restore point.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do a system restore in Windows 8.

OPTION ONE

To Do a System Restore at Boot for Windows 8

1. Boot to the System Recovery Options screen, and click on System Restore in Advanced Options. (see screenshot below)

2. Go to step 8 in OPTION TWO below.

3. After step 14 in OPTION TWO below, click on Restart, then do step 15 in OPTION TWO below. (see screenshot below)

OPTION TWO

To Do a System Restore in Windows 8

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for how you would like to start doing a System Restore.

2. Open the Power User Tasks Menu, click on System, and go to step 5. (see screenshot below)

OR

3. Open the Control Panel (icons view), click on the System icon, and go to step 5.

OR

4. Open the Control Panel (icons view), click on the Recovery icon, click on the Open System Restore link, and go to step 6. (see screenshot below)

5. Click on the System protection link in the left pane. (see screenshot below)

6. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

7. Click on the System Restore button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will not see this screen if you did step 4. If you did step 4, then skip this step and go to step 8.

8. If displayed, click on Next, and go to step 10. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only see this screen if this is the first time that system restore is being done in Windows 8.

9. Select (dot) Choose a different restore point, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)

10. Select a restore point that you would like to restore your computer state back to, and click on the Scan for affected programs button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If displayed, check the Show other restore points box to be able to see any older restore points (if available) that are not listed.

11. Verify that the listed affected programs and drivers to be deleted and restored will be ok to you, and click on Close. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If not, then click on Close and go back to step 10 to select another restore point.

12. When ready, click on Next. (see screenshot below step 10)

13. Click on the Finish button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The listed drives here will be restored back to the state of when the selected restore point was created.

14. Click on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)
WARNING: This will immediately restart your computer to finish the system restore.

15. After the computer has restarted and you opened the Desktop (Windows+D) next, click on the Close button. (see screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

• How to Delete System Protection Restore Points in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Undo the Last System Restore in Windows 8
• How to Turn System Protection On or Off in Windows 8
• How to Create a Restore Point in Windows 8
• How to Make a "Create System Restore Point" Shortcut in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Add "Create Restore Point" to Context Menu in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Automatically Create System Restore Points in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change the Maximum Disk Space Used for System Protection in Windows 8
• How to Create or Set Up Windows Backup to Back Up Files in Windows 8
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• How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 8
• How to Manually Extract System Image Files Using Disk Management in Windows 8