A new feature called Point-in-time Restore is coming to Microsoft PCs, and will be available to Windows 11 and Windows 10 users. It means that you’ll be able to turn back time to the state your PC was in previously. This could be a godsend if you deleted just the wrong document, application or other data by mistake.
Right now, the feature is in the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build (26220.7271) so it’s only available if you’re registered as a Windows Insider.
“Point-in-time restore is a new recovery system in Windows 11 and Windows 10 that uses Volume Shadow Copy Service to capture complete system states at fixed intervals. A restore point is a block-level shadow copy of the entire MainOS volume that contains the operating system files, installed programs, settings, account data, and local user files. Because the restore point includes everything on the OS volume, it can return the PC to the exact state it was in when the copy was taken,” Windows Latest reports.
This new feature differs from System Restore, which has long been available. System Restore is only for system files, registry settings, drivers and so on, but Point-in-time Restore covers everything, including a user’s data.
It’s designed to allow users to roll back without the need for backup software. It works for up to the last 72 hours, though you can also choose shorter periods for how long the data is restored, which is handy if you want to save storage space.
“If a user selects point-in-time restore when Windows boots into the recovery environment, the user will get an option to select the restore point they want. Since these restore points contain the entire system state, the restore process rewrites all blocks that changed since the last copy,” Windows Latest says, and this also differs from System Restore because of its focus on protected system areas.
It's worth noting that the new feature will only be turned on by default if your PC disk size is 200GB or more. If you have less storage space, you’ll need to turn it on.
Additionally, though data that exists at the restore point is saved, “If you create or edit a document after the restore point, it will not survive. Since Microsoft doesn’t show when the restore points store data, it will be difficult to know if important data will be part of a restore point,” Windows Latest points out.
When this feature is on general release it could prove very useful.
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