System Restore Point Shortcut

How to Make a "Create System Restore Point" Shortcut in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

This tutorial will provide you with a create a manual system restore point shortcut that will instantly create a restore point with an optional description and success message in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

System Restore isn't available for Windows RT.

   Note

Restore points contain information about registry settings and other system information that Windows uses. System Restore points do not include personal user files in the C:\Users\(user-name) folders.

   Warning

For this shortcut to work, you must have System Protection turned on for the C: (Windows) drive. If you do not have it on, then you will get the error below when you try to use the shortcut.

EXAMPLE: Create System Restore Point with description and message shortcut
NOTE: When you click on the Create System Restore Point shortcut, you will see this window. Just type in a name for the restore point, and click on OK to create the restore point.

OPTION ONE

To Create the "Create Restore Point" Shortcut

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what type of shortcut you would like to use to create a restore point with.
2. For an Instant Create Restore Point Shortcut
NOTE: This shortcut will instantly create a restore point named Instant Restore Point in System Restore without prompting for a description or giving you any type of success message. If you didn't get an error, then the restore point was created successfully after a few moments.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Instant_Restore_Point.zip

Download


3. For a Create Restore Point with Description Prompt Shortcut
NOTE: This shortcut will prompt you to enter a description name for the restore point, then create the restore point. If you didn't get an error, then the restore point was created successfully after a few moments.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Restore_Point_Shortcut.zip

Download


4. For a Create Restore Point with Description and Success Message Shortcut
NOTE: This shortcut will prompt you to enter a description for the restore point, create the restore point, and give you a successfully completed message when it's finished.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Restore_Point_Message_Shortcut.zip

Download


5. Save the downloaded .zip file to your desktop.

6. Unblock the downloaded .zip file.

7. Open the downloaded .zip file, right click on the Instant_Restore_Point (step 2), or Restore Point Shortcut (step 3), or Restore Point Message Shortcut (step 4) folder, and click/tap on Copy.

8. Navigate to and open the C:\Program Files folder in Windows Explorer, then right click or press and hold on an empty area in the folder window, and click/tap on Paste. (see screenshot below step 10)

9. If prompted by UAC, then click on Continue and Yes.

10. You should now see the Instant_Restore_Point (step 2), or Restore Point Shortcut (step 3), or Restore Point Message Shortcut (step 4) folder in the C:\Program Files window now. (see screenshot below)

11. Open the downloaded .zip file, extract (drag and drop) the Create System Restore Point or Instant Restore Point shortcut to your desktop.

13. You can now leave the Create System Restore Point (left screenshot below) or Instant Restore Point (right screenshot below) shortcut on the desktop or move it to where you like for easy use of it.

OPTION TWO

To Remove the "Create Restore Point" Shortcut

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files in Windows Explorer, then right click on either the Instant_Restore_Point (step 2 above), or Restore Point Shortcut (step 3 above), or Restore Point Message Shortcut (step 4 above) folder, and click on Delete. (see screenshot below)

2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

3. Right click or press and hold on the Create System Restore Point (left screenshot below) or Instant Restore Point (right screenshot below) shortcut, and click/tap on Delete.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Add "Create Restore Point" to Context Menu in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Change the System Protection Disk Space Usage in Window 7
• How to Change the Maximum Disk Space Used for System Protection in Windows 8
• How to Turn System Protection On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 System Restore
• How to Delete System Protection Restore Points in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Create a System Restore Point in Windows 7
• How to Create a Restore Point in Windows 8
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 8
• How to Create a Windows 7 "System Protection Properties" Shortcut
• How to Automatically Create System Restore Points in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Create a System Recovery Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista and Windows 7 when Dual Booting with XP
• How to Extract Files and Folders from System Restore Points in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Enable or Disable Automatic System Restore Point Creation in Windows

 

[rdwray]

No, because I had created them all with your shortcut. Question on your shortcut which is a .vbs: When I try to run it with Task Scheduler, it wants to know "how to open it"; I tried using PowerShell.exe, but that failed, what's the answer??

 

[Brink]

Odd, did you actually turn system protection off and on for the drive, or just set the size? If just the size, then that would be why they didn't get deleted.


You should be able to use the same as in METHOD TWO of the tutorial below in Task Scheduler, but for what trigger you wanted instead.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/67114-system-restore-point-create-system-startup.html

 

[rdwray]

I actually turned off system restore before the "list" deleted itself.

Took a look at Method 2; I downloaded "System Scheduler" and it is working ok. The issue, and I appreciate everything, is that if I have to do a "Refresh" (win8) or a new install, I have my work cut out for me to get the system back up. DOS was so simple...

 

[Brink]

That's a nice program. I hope the refresh goes smoothly.

 

[rdwray]

I have a simple mind and I need simple programs - they did a brain scan on me and they are looking for anything they can find.

 

[Brink]

LOL, I know how that is.

 

[Homer712]

Thank You!

I've been an "Apple" guy since way back in 1984, but during my working days I always needed to be able to use Windows based machines. Somehow, the fascination with how the Windows operating systems worked (or didn't) and how to "tweak" certain programs and settings always kept me interested. So much so that now (retired) I find myself mostly "tinkering" with my Toshiba laptop. But to the point . . . I was interested in understanding more about Restore Points and how to create them, just "in case" (I did say I tinker a lot, didn't I). Found this site, and from this tutorial I was able to create:
1. A Scheduled Task which creates a System Restore Point, once daily.
2. A Shortcut that I can create a System Restore Point with manually.
3. And, both of the above run without the "Do you want this program to run . . ." prompt.

Took a few tries to get it all done, but I'm feeling pretty proud of myself this morning.

So again, thank you Brink!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Homer, and welcome to Seven Forums. I'm glad that we were able to help.

 

[HoneycombAG]

I tried to run this at boot time and all I got is:

 

[Brink]

Hello AG,

Since the .vbs file will "Run as administrator", Windows will not run it at startup by default. However, you could use Method Two in the tutorial below as a workaround to be able to do so.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/67114-system-restore-point-create-system-startup.html

 

[HoneycombAG]

Did you unblock the VBS file?

I didn't see Unblock when I uncompressed the files. I did have a little shortcut trouble because I wanted it to run from my personal Documents folders.
I would have tried the Task Scheduler option but I've completely turned off System Restore on this tower. I'm having hell with my Volume Shadow Copy service again! Because if Volume Shadow Copy doesn't work ... then System Restore don't work, and then Windows Backup doesn't work, and Action Center for weeks has been asking me to set-up a backup drive.

 

[Brink]

If you turned off System Protection for you C: (Windows) drive, then that is why your are getting the error when you run the .vbs file. The .vbs file uses Windows built-in create a restore point, but does it automatically for you.

 

[HoneycombAG]

But System Restore doesn't even work!

Because if Volume Shadow Copy doesn't work ...

If you turned off System Protection for you C: (Windows) drive...

How is it when I had System Protection turned ON before, the Volume Shadow Copy Service doesn't even work NOW? Now I have no restore points, and no prior history of all my installed Windows updates, and programs will fail at installing. That is, if they do try to call up functions that include "create a restore point" in the future.

How do I fix the Volume Shadow Copy service?

 

[Brink]

You could do a repair install to fix it without losing anything.

 

[nutronshadow]

Administrator required?

Anyone know what privileges to assign regular non-administrator users to allow them to be able to create a restore point? I tried adding them to backup operators but no love there...
-Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello NutronShadow, and welcome to Seven Forums.

A user must have administrator rights to be able to create a restore point.

 

[nutronshadow]

Yes, I understand the Administrators group has already been granted those rights, but also many others! I was hoping someone knew which ones were specifically needed to create a restore point.

Remember, being in the administrators group doesn't change your account in any way, it just grants you many additional rights that can each be controlled individually. If an organization can't give users full admin rights, they typically grant them just the ones they need.
Thanks,

 

[Brink]

Yes, usually that's handled through secpol.msc under Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment. However, there is not one listed for restore points, system protection, or shadow copy to be able to assign a standard user rights to create a restore point.

So far, the only way that I know of are by members of the Administrators group.

 

[Robphoto91]

Thank you for this awesome VBscript. I made a little adjust mention so that the final message box also displays the label of the Restore Point.

MsgBox "The restore point, " + sDesc + ", was created successfully.", 0, "Create Manual System Restore Point"

My question is how does one format the sDesc so that it shows as bold? I am not familiar with programming beyond basic (DOS) programming and suspect it can be accomplished via object oriented programming.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Rob, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Nice addition. Thank you.

If I remember correctly, I don't think there's an option to make the text bold like that in a msgbox.

EDIT:
If you like, you can use this instead to have quotes around it to make it easier to see. I've updated the download in the tutorial to use this below instead now.

MsgBox "The restore point " & Chr(34) & sDesc & Chr(34) & " was created successfully.", 0, "Create Manual System Restore Point"