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Can Windows 11 Finally Save Your Files When Your PC Crashes?
Windows 11 now has a new way to save your computer when things go wrong. It’s called Point-in-time restore, and it takes a full picture of your PC at different times. This means your apps, files, and settings all get saved together.
When your computer breaks because of a bad update or driver problem, you can bring everything back to how it was before the trouble started. The system saves these pictures every day on your computer’s hard drive. You can pick any saved point from the last three days to fix your PC.
How It’s Different From the Old System Restore
The old System Restore only saved some parts of Windows. It would protect system files and drivers but skip your personal documents.
Point-in-time restore saves everything. Your work files, photos, apps, and even passwords all get included in each saved picture. This makes it much better at bringing your computer back to exactly how it was.
The new tool also works on a schedule that you control. The old tool only kicked in when big changes happened or when you told it to run.
Setting Up Point-in-Time Restore
Right now, you can only use this if you joined the Windows Insider program for testing new features. After you install the latest test version, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings, then System, then Recovery.
- Find Point-in-time restore in the list.
- Turn on the switch to start using it.
- Pick how often you want saves to happen (every 4, 6, 12, 16, or 24 hours).
- Choose how long to keep old saves (6, 12, 16, 24, or 72 hours).
- Set how much storage space the saves can use.
The tool needs at least 200GB of total storage on your computer to turn on by itself. Smaller drives need you to turn it on yourself.
Using a Restore Point to Fix Your PC
When your computer won’t work right, you need to start it in recovery mode. Go to Settings, System, Recovery, then Advanced startup and click Restart now.
Pick Troubleshoot from the menu, then click Point-in-time restore. If you have BitLocker turned on, you’ll need to type in your recovery key.
You’ll see a list of saved points with dates and times. Pick the one from before your problem started. The system will warn you that any work done after that point will disappear.
The restore can take 30 minutes or more, depending on how much stuff is on your computer. When it finishes, your PC boots back up with everything working like it did at that saved moment.
What Can Go Wrong
Every change you made after the restore point gets erased. This includes new files, changed documents, saved passwords, and installed programs.
The system doesn’t show you exactly when each save happened. This makes it hard to know if your important work got saved or not.
Restore points might not get created if your hard drive is too full or if Windows is working too hard. The computer also skips saves when it’s turned off or sleeping.
You can’t look inside a restore point to see what’s there. They only work as complete rollbacks. If you have multiple drives, only the main Windows drive gets restored.