Windows 11’s point-in-time restore can roll a PC back to how it was as recently as a day ago, in minutes. The catch is that it rolls back everything, including local files created since the snapshot.
Restore points are captured with Volume Shadow Copy Service and are “comprehensive and include the OS, apps, settings, and local files (no user data is scoped out of the restore point),” according to Microsoft’s documentation. That’s the key difference from classic System Restore, which leaves personal documents alone. As MakeUseOf pointed out, new files and recently installed apps disappear when you roll back.
How the snapshots work
By default Windows takes a restore point roughly every 24 hours, and administrators can change the frequency and retention. Points are deleted once they’re older than 72 hours, when they exceed the configured storage limit, or when free disk space drops to 20GB or less. Space isn’t reserved ahead of time. Microsoft warns that snapshots won’t always land at the exact configured time, since timing varies with sleep and power states.
The settings live under System > Recovery > Point-in-time restore, with dropdowns for frequency and retention. Restoring happens from the Windows Recovery Environment, which a PC enters automatically after repeated boot failures or from Settings > Recovery > Advanced startup.
Who gets it turned on
Defaults depend on the machine. The feature is on by default for Windows Pro devices that aren’t domain-joined or enrolled in enterprise management, but only when the OS volume is 200GB or larger. It’s off by default on Enterprise and Education editions. That will widen: Microsoft said in an updated support document that “starting with Windows 11, version 26H2, it will be enabled by default,” Windows Latest reported.
Because restore points stay on the device and expire after three days, the feature doesn’t replace a real backup. It’s aimed at the bad driver or broken update discovered the same day.
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