Windows 7 - System Protection - Turn On or Off

**Brink**

How to Turn System Protection On or Off in Windows 7

Information

This will show you how to turn System Protection On or Off to create System Restore Points for system settings and previous versions of files in Windows 7. By default, System Protection is turned on for the hard disk or partition that Windows 7 is installed on.

Note

System Restore regularly tracks changes to your computer's system files, and uses a feature called System Protection to create restore points. System Protection is turned on by default for the Windows 7 hard disk or partition on your computer. You can select which disks have System Protection turned on for.

Warning

System Restore doesn't protect FAT32 and other FAT disks because FAT disks don't support the use of shadow copies. Shadow copies contain information about changes to documents and system files. Shadow copies require the NTFS file system. Windows 7 uses the NTFS file system.
Turning off System Protection for a disk deletes all restore points for that disk. You cannot restore the disk until you turn on System Protection again and a restore point is created for that disk.

Here's How:

1. Open the Control Panel (All Items View).
A) Click on the System icon.

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Start Menu.
A) Right click on the Computer button and click on Properties.

3. Click on the System Protection link. (See screenshot below step 4)

4. Close the System window. (See screenshot below)

5. Click on the available hard disk drive or partition, that you want to turn System Protection on or off for, to select it. (See screenshot below step 6)
NOTE: Windows 7 should be the C: drive with (System). Under the Protection column, you will see if System Protection is turned On or Off for the available disk.

6. Click on the Configure button. (See screenshot below)

7. To Turn On System Protection for System Settings and Previous Versions of Files -
A) Dot Restore system settings and previous versions of files. (See screenshot below step 10)

B) Go to step 10.

8. To Turn On System Protection for Only Previous Versions of Files -
A) Dot Only restore previous versions of files. (See screenshot below step 10)

B) Go to step 10.

9. To Turn Off System Protection for the Selected Disk -
A) Dot Turn off system protection. (See screenshot below step 10)

10. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 if you want to turn on System Protection for another available listed disk drive.

12. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 6)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

adgower · 10-24-2009

Worked perfectly! Thanks!

**shortmantuff** · 11-04-2009

Anyway to turn off System Restores at boot or shutdown?

**Brink** · 11-04-2009

Hello Shortmantuff,

Yes, you can disabled the startup task in Task Scheduler for this. There is not one for shut down though.

System Restore Task - Change Automatic Restore Point Schedule - Vista Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**shortmantuff** · 11-05-2009

Thanks Shawn!

**Brink** · 11-05-2009

You're welcome.

PETStech · 12-09-2009

I've just installed Windows 7 Home Premium and want to create restore points as I install apps.

The problem: there are only four tabs on System Properties and the System Protection tab is missing!

I checked Volume Shadowing service; it was off, so I set it to automatically start and then re-booted, but still no Protection tab.

I have plenty of space on the C: partition, although when I first did the install I had a smaller partition, which I subsequently enlarged to 400gb.

- Tom

**Brink** · 12-09-2009

Hello Tom, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You may have had something go wrong during installation. Was this a clean or upgrade install that you did? You might consider doing a clean (format) install instead or again to see if it is there afterwards.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

PETStech · 12-10-2009

Shawn,

Thanks for your reply.

I did a 'clean install' which seemed to go without a hitch, and I have already installed 32 apps and performed additional organization and configuration of the new system. Doing another 'clean install' would be very 'distasteful' and a repeat of more than a day's work (I do not do these things, hastily). I was using a 3-pak installation disk. Might it have a different 'build' with things missing? I understand that in some builds, some essentail drivers had not been included, causing installation headaches.

So, if it is true that a new restore point is created after each exit/reboot, perhaps I'll forgo the luxury of setting the restore point, manually, and just reboot whenever I want to set a new one. Of course, I'd lose the labeling feature of a manually set restore point.

Whadaya think?

- Tom

**Brink** · 12-10-2009

Tom,

Normally a restore point will be created at each startup if a change to the system has been detected since the last restore point that was made. However, since you are misssing the "System Protection" tab, System Protection may not be enabled to have any restore points.

See if running a sfc /scannow command, then restart the computer afterwards may be able to restore it.