Delete System Restore Points To Free Disk Space

OK, this method of deleting restore points deletes ALL restore points.

What do I do to keep the very first manually created restore point after I reinstalled the OS? Are the restore files descriptive enough that I can determine the one I want to keep? Do the restore files have a date that would help me to select the one I want to keep?

Say I have found the restore file to keep, now what do I do to keep it from being deleted?

This method doesn’t delete all the restore points. It keeps the most current one and deletes the rest!

This was very helpful, since the previous restore points are infected with spyware and viruses that are detected during a scans.

Thanks!

You can also remove all restore points:

“To delete all the restore points on your computer, disable and re-enable system restore on the system. Click Start, Control Panel, and then the System icon. Click on the System Restore tab in the dialog box, select the Turn off System Restore check box, and click Apply. Clear the check box again to re-enable System Restore and then click OK.”

(from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx)

Great. Thanks.

Usually your most recent restore point is the bad one and the earlier restore points are the ones you would need so HOW DO YOU MANUALLY DELETE SYSTEM RESTORE POINTS AND KEEP THE ONES YOU WANT!!!!???? This question is still left unanswered. Could it be that some moron(s) overlooked this neccessity when the program was designed?

It is not possible to delete newer restore points while keeping old ones. While this would be desirable, the designers apparently felt that the space requirements would be excessive. My understanding is that the restore points only record changes, so that a restore to an older point requires stepping backward through all of them. At least the system does this for you, so to the user it’s a single step.

I guess to make things clear I will have to repeat . I do not want windows vista to choose my restore points. This caused me to have to reinstall my operating system which for vista is about a 3 hour process. I had perfectly known good restore points in place but vista deleted them when it overwrote them every time I updated or installed a new program. By the time I realized something was wrong it was too late and all the newly created restore points were worthless since I had already inherited the problem when vista created them. By choosing my own restore points I have verified my system is working properly at the time I created them which is something vista does NOT do when it creates restore points.

Microsoft has taken away a lot of control by the user with the new vista platform which to me is NOT a good thing

nope for me is not working ….. i need more deep answer on this one , cant open system restore files cant delete , cant nothing ….. access denied ….. via total commander is asking for a password and far is no good also help ?

u need to diasable and renable system restore..
disablin system restore wont do..
u can disable it after completing one cycle..

One very IMPORTANT question left unanswer.
“How to delete unwanted restore points BUT able to keep one(s) that created manually?”

How come all the smart morons can simply ignor this critical question? I figured u r all Salesman dressed in IT coats.? This is a typical sterotype of salesman; and not all salesman are like that.

if you want to manage when your system creates restore points, so you have more control, use the mmc snap-in. If you have vista hold the win logo key and press r, it`ll bring up the run box in which you type mmc. Thats the microsoft management console. click file, click add/remove snap-in. scroll down to task scheduler and double click it, then choose local computer. Click ok. In the left pane expand task scheduler (local), expand task scheduler library, microsoft, windows, system restore. In the top center pane double click SR, from there you will have full control of you`re system restores.

I would reccomend setting everything to disabled, and manually create a restore point at intervals of your choosing. following i will give 2 vb scripts to aid you in the latter. copy and paste these in notepad and save with a “.vbs” extension. 1st to reset system restore and 2nd to instantly create a restore point.

‘******Starthere******
‘This VBScript
‘1. Erases all Restore Points
‘2. Then Disables System Restore

strComputer = “.”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(”winmgmts:\\” & strComputer & “\root\default”)
Set objItem = objWMIService.Get(”SystemRestore”)
errResults = objItem.Disable(”")
‘*****End here******

‘*****Start here******
‘This VBScript creates a new restore point called “Kyle`s Idea”

Set IRP = getobject(”winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore”)
MYRP = IRP.createrestorepoint (”Kyle`s Idea”, 0, 100)
‘******End here*****

try my delete restore points utility

I need a utility that will work on Windows Xp pro and Vista

Thanks, It works 100% fine

Don’t forget… if you use the scripts (which work great), paste them into notepad, name them, add .vbs on the end as the extension, and save them using ‘Save as…’ then in the drop down be SURE to use ALL FILES.

If you don’t it will save as a text file and be worthless…

SAVE AS… ALL FILES…. *.VBS

it helped me a lot

I was doing a bit of googleing for a script of this type and happened to come across this site. I thank you very much for it has helped me greatly when automating this to run on a system I may sell to a client. I tried working with another one, but to no avail. Thanks again…

Latest version of ccleaner can do delte selective restore points in Windows XP

Thx for the tips. Very useful information.

Thx again to Buzz99 for the “CCleaner” tip. The new system restore feature allows one to remove individual restore points. Very f**kin’ coool!