[Fix] System Restore Point Creation / Configuration Disabled by Group Policy or System Administrator in Windows

Sometimes when you try to create a System Restore point or want to configure System Restore feature in Windows, you find that the Create and Configure buttons are grayed out and you see following messages:

System Restore Point Creation Disabled by Group Policy
System Restore Point Configuration Disabled by System Administrator

Restore_Point_Creation_Configuratio.png

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System_Restore_Disabled_XP.png

It happens when the creation of System Restore point or configuration of System Restore is disabled by system administrator.

To fix this problem, you just need to follow these simple steps:

First Method: Using Group Policy Editor

1. Type gpedit.msc in RUN or Start Menu Searchbox and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now navigate to:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> System Restore

3. In right-side pane, make sure both “Turn off Configuration” and “Turn off System Restore” options are set to “Not Configured“. If both or any of them is set to “Enabled”, double-click on the option and set its value to “Not Configured“.

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Turn_off_Restore_Point_Group_Policy.png

4. That’s it. It’ll immediately enable System Restore in your system.

Second Method: Using Registry Editor

If you are using Home edition of Windows OS, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Start Menu Searchbox and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\SystemRestore

3. In right-side pane, if you see any of following 2 DWORD values, delete them:

DisableConfig
DisableSR

Turn_off_Restore_Point_Registry_Edi.png

4. Restart or log off your system and System Restore will be enabled.

NOTE: If you don’t want to do the task manually and want a ready-made registry script to do the task automatically, download following ZIP file, extract it and then run .REG file:

Download Registry Script

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. wow thanks a ton 1st way worked immediately. I just installed a new modified version of Win 7 Ultimate and System Restore was turned off by default by the Administrator But I’m the Admin. It was done by the guy who modified this version I guess. But I knew about gpedit.msc, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with the Sys. Restore files, it just that it was not configured, thing was thou I had my screen to one side and I didn’t see over to the far right where it did say “Enabled”. big dummie…

    So yeah thanks again because when I went thru your steps I was in full screen mode and then I saw it.

    Thanks again and keep up teh great work.
    Brian

  2. respected sir

    pls tell free software to make flash file for education purpose .

    it is easy to handle not like aura 3d , maya etc…..
    pls help me

  3. Dear Vishalji, Date 22Feb,2013

    Please help me to get back my valuable data after run a dangerous “System Restore” command by a novice guy of MTS data card center on my desktop.

    He did “system restore” on yesterday for 31 Dec, 2012 (Windows XP) while I worked out on this desktop in January 2013 so much, I transferred my all data of another system onto it, compact all data, made so many new folders and deleted unnecessary folders, managed the whole data on my desktop.

    Now, by this command the whole system has reached to previous state of 31 Dec, 2012. My all work done on drive D, E, F, G, in January 2013 has lost, means all copy data from another system with all managing data into these 4 drives.

    while that novice guy told me to do this operation on C drive only……………while by doing this “System Restore” command on windowsXP, the whole drive (D, E, F, G) have affected with C drive.

    So please help me to undo this operation at any cost………………..I want to get back my all work done in past…………..

  4. ^^ Thats really sad. First check System Restore and if you find a new restore point, try to restore your system on it. Otherwise you’ll have to take help of data recovery software but chances are less. You can google for free data recovery software.

  5. I attempted the 1st. method. “Turn off Configuration” and “Turn off System Restore” were already set to “Not Configured.” What I did was enable them both, reboot, set both back to “not configured” and it worked.

  6. None of that worked.

    I had OEM Windows 8, downloaded all it’s patches,
    loaded Windows 8.1 update and all it’s patches.

    I transferred the hard drive to SSD with Samsung Migration,
    and File History is completely disabled as well as System Restore.
    I can still make Recimg Manager Backups, but no restores.

    Push all the switches and click all the buttons – all same answer: ya can’t do that.

    Absolutely no help from Microsoft, no way to un-grey out system restores, so no way to
    undo the latest changes…

  7. In Windows 8 I typed the command in the search box. I’m assuming you are referring to the search box on the top right of screen after mousing or swiping that side of screen.

    My search did not bring up anything. Is this not intended for Windows 8?

  8. ^^ It seems you are using Windows 8 core edition which doesnt come with gpedit.msc. Try the second method.

  9. Will enabling this overwrite their old system restore points or does it make sure they are kept? I need to know before enabling this, because we need to make sure the ones that are there are kept no matter what and for longer than 7 days.

    HELP!?

  10. my problem is that my pc won’t let me set a new restore point, I set it and when I do the restore the computer goes back to today, can you help?

  11. Thanks so much. I talked with Dell support they couldn’t tell me how to do this. I talked with windows support, they couldn’t help either. Now, I need to figure out why my 1 TB computer suddenly shows 960 GB used. I downloaded the TreeSize free file and it shows under my user one directory, “OneDrive.old 562 GB” and another, “OneDrive 266 GB. Again, Dell couldn’t tell me anything and neither could Microsoft. They are useless!

  12. Thank you. I followed fix 2…deleted the DWORD files…rebooted. Tried Change stsem restore to allow me to do it and it wouldn’t work…checked again and the two deleted files are back. Help

  13. Thank you. This worked!!!

    I used your Second Method: Using Registry Editor which solved my problem. Thank you so much!!

  14. ASKVG IS ALWAYS TRUST WORTHY
    I DON’T HESITATE TO DELETE REGISTRY VALUE IF IT IS SUGGESTED BY ASKVG
    AND IT ALWAYS WORK

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