Use System Restore to fix Windows Issues

With System Restore you can revert your PC's state to a previous point in time in Microsoft Windows 11 which can help you troubleshoot issues caused by recent changes, such as software installations, driver updates, or system settings modifications. By using System Restore, you can undo these changes without affecting your personal files, providing a safe way to resolve problems without losing important data.

Next Century
14 steps
6 seconds

Microsoft

If you have a laptop, it is highly recommended you connect the power supply before performing a system restore.

On the taskbar, click on the Search box or symbol

Type 'System Restore'

Click on **Create a restore point** under Control panel

Under Protection Settings, Local Disk (C:) (System) or a similar name should have Protection On, otherwise, you will have no restore points to restore back to and cannot proceed.

Click **System Restore...**

Click **Next**

Select a restore point that is a date before you encountered any issues, then click Next

Select a restore point that is a date before you encountered any issues, then click **Next**

If there are no dates before the date you encountered the issue, tick 'Show more restore points'

Click **Finish**

Click **Yes** to start restoring your computer back to the restore point

Do not click on Yes until you have saved and closed all files/programs.

You will then see the message Preparing to restore your system...

Next your screen will go black and you will see Restarting

Next, it will change to Please wait while your Windows files and settings are been restored System Restore is restoring the registry...

This process can take 10-45 minutes depending on the speed of your computer

After your computer or laptop restarts, you should receive a notification that the System Restore was successful or failed.

Even if you see an unsuccessful message when the computer/laptop restarts, sometimes the system restore process restored enough files/settings to fix the issue you was experiencing.

Occasionally, if you are using Google Chrome browser, it might not work afterwards and to fix this, you just need to reinstall Chrome.