How to Delete Windows Restore Points on All Windows Versions

Are you wondering why your Windows system is sluggish or why you might be running out of storage space? Windows System restore points could be the culprit behind these issues.

While they're a fantastic feature and vital for recovering the system in a disaster, Windows System restore points can also hog your storage space and slow down your PC. That's why managing them is crucial, and today's guide will focus on deleting System restore points.

Stick around, and we'll show you how to delete restore points on Windows 10 and teach you how to clear System restore points from older versions of Windows. Let's dive in.

How to Delete Restore Points on Windows 7 & 8 & 10 & 11

While they've been part of the operating system since Windows Me (Millennium Edition), System restore points have drastically changed over the last 24 years. However, since most users have long stopped using these older Windows versions, we'll first focus on the newer ones.

We'll start with the Windows 10 version since it's the first OS to receive a new Settings menu. You'll need to use this new Settings menu to delete restore points in Windows 10. Similarly, you can follow these steps to delete restore points in Windows 11. Here's how:

1. Open the Settings menu on your Windows 10 or 11 PC.
2. Navigate to System > About and tap the System protection option.

   

3. Pick one of the Available Drives and tap Configure.

   

4. Tap the Delete button to delete restore points in Windows 10 or 11.

   

5. Hit the Continue button once you carefully read the warning notification.

   

Since Microsoft started replacing the Control Panel with the Settings menu in Windows 10 and newer, you'll need to follow a few different steps for older versions of Windows. Here's how to delete restore points in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1:

1. Launch the Control Panel and click Recovery.

   

2. Select the Configure System Restore option.

   

3. You can then pick a drive and tap Configure like the guide above.
4. Hit the Delete button to delete restore points in Windows 7, 8, or 8.1.

As you can see, the only difference between the two newer versions of Windows and the three older ones is how you access the System Protection menu. Apart from that, the steps for removing System restore points on all five Windows versions are similar.

How to Clear System Restore Points on Windows XP & Vista

While Microsoft recommends immediately moving away from the older Windows XP and Vista versions due to their lack of security updates, there are still computers with these versions of Windows. On these devices, deleting System restore points looks something like this:

1. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
2. Once the System Properties window pops up, select the System Restore tab at the top.

   

3. Tick the box next to the Turn off System Restore option.

   

Alternatively, you can move the slider below Disk space usage to the left to free up storage space without removing System restore points.

Note: Windows XP and Vista also save System restore points in "C:\System Volume Information," so you can navigate to this folder via My Computer and manually remove system restore points.

How to Delete an Individual System Restore Point in Any Windows Version

Unfortunately, Windows has no built-in option to remove System restore points individually, but you can still do that with a third-party app like CCleaner. Here's how:

1. Download and install CCleaner from the official website.
2. Launch the app on your system and tap the Tools menu on the left.

   

3. Click System Restore and select a restore point you want to remove. Then, hit Remove.

   

Note: While CCleaner can manually manage System restore points, it's highly recommended that you avoid these "cleaner" apps for freeing up storage space, as they can do more harm than good to your PC. For example, the tool's Registry Cleaner, which often shows registry keys and DLL files as issues when they aren't ones, can cause problems with Cortana, indexing, a specific Windows update, and even your entire OS installation.

How to Remove All System Restore Points in Windows 10 Except the Most Recent One

If you'd like to regain your precious storage space but don't want to eliminate System restore points entirely, you can remove older system restore points while keeping the most recent ones. Here's how to do that in Windows 10 or 11:

1. Hit the Windows key on your keyboard and look for Disk Clean-up.

   

2. Launch the system utility and select a disk drive to clean up.

   

3. Tap the Clean up system files option and select a disk drive again.

   

4. Click the More Options tab at the top.
5. Select Clean up next to System Restore and Shadow Copies.

   

6. When prompted to delete restore points on Windows 10 and keep the recent ones, tap Delete.

   

Note: It's worth noting that the Disk Cleanup utility has been around for a while, so you can follow the same steps for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.

How to Recover a Restore Point

Windows users often wonder whether deleting System restore points is safe and whether they should do it to free up space or make their PC less sluggish.

While it's not the best way for a beginner to free up storage space, the truth is, even if you remove System restore points you still need for whatever reason, you can also recover them with a professional data recovery tool like Wondershare Recoverit.

Whether you've accidentally deleted System restore points or lost other data types, this professional recovery utility can eliminate your problems. Characterized by 20 years of data recovery experience, 35 patented technologies, and a recovery success rate of 98%, Wondershare Recoverit can quickly and efficiently recover removed System restore points and almost all other data types.

Its intuitive user interface is beginner-friendly yet contains all the necessary tools and features to find and restore lost files. With support for hundreds of data loss situations and the ability to work with thousands of file types, formats, and storage devices, Wondershare Recoverit is a breeze in any situation.

Here's how you can do that:

1. Download, install, and launch the app on your Windows computer.
2. Click Hard Drives and Locations and select a disk drive from which you've deleted System restore points. That's usually Local Disk (C:), but it can also be another NTFS-formatted drive.

   

3. The app will immediately launch an all-around scan of the selected storage device. Its deep scan dives into the disk drive, finding long-lost and deleted System restore points.

   

4. As your System restore points are classified by date and time, you can use the file filters to fine-tune the search and look for specific items.

   

5. You can also use the app's keyword feature to pinpoint the search.

   

6. When ready, hit Recover to restore your deleted System restore points to another disk drive.

   

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Thousands of satisfied customers can also vouch for the app's reliability, trustworthiness, privacy, and security measures. Furthermore, with the ability to restore files from well over 500 data loss situations, support for 2,000+ storage devices, and the fact that it works with 1,000+ file formats and systems, Wondershare Recoverit is an indispensable tool for far more than just removed System restore points.

Tips: How to Manage Restore Points

To prevent situations with sluggish Windows computers and low disk space from happening again, we're adding a few tips for efficient System restore point management. Here are a few tips you can incorporate into your routine:

• Set up scheduled and automatic System restore points;
• Limit the allocated disk space to prevent restore points from taking up too much storage space;
• Create manual restore points before making any significant changes to your system;
• Turn off System restore points for other disk drives that don't hold valuable information;
• Manage System restore points by deleting old ones with the Disk Clean-up utility.

While they're instrumental in restoring your Windows system to a previous state in a disaster, System restore points are not complete backups.

Protecting your user data will require combining System restore points with dedicated backup utilities such as Wondershare UBackit, which also has manual, automatic, and scheduled backup features.

Conclusion

Windows restore points can take up valuable storage space and slow your PC, so removing System restore points is often necessary. We've shown you how to remove individual ones with a third-party app and how to remove all but the most recent restore point.

To delete System restore points on Windows 10, you can access System Protection options through the Settings menu, configure the allocated storage space, and delete System restore points. You can also use this method to delete System restore points on Windows 11.

The steps for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 look quite similar, with the only exception being using the Control Panel instead of the Settings menu. On the other hand, for Windows XP and Vista, you'll need to access System Restore through My Computer and Properties.

And if you accidentally remove a System restore point you still need, you can effortlessly recover it with a dedicated data recovery utility like Wondershare Recoverit. After all, the app works flawlessly in any data loss situation, and you can use it for virtually all types of lost files and affected storage devices.