

Since the definition of “idle” is “0% CPU usage and 0% disk input for 90% of the last 15 minutes, plus no keyboard/mouse activity” ( source), it could take days for your machine to be idle, especially if you have a lot of programs running in the background.Īs you see, the frequency with which automatic restore points are created is hard to estimate, but if you use your machine every day on AC power and nothing prevents it from entering an idle state, you can expect automatic restore points to be created every 1-2 days on Windows Vista and every 7-8 days on Windows 7. The first thing to understand here is that the System Restore task on Vista and 7 will only execute if your computer is idle for at least 10 minutes and is running on AC power.

In addition, Windows automatically creates restore points at hard-to-predict intervals. DirectX), Windows updates, and some applications. Volume shadow copies (restore points) are created before the installation of device drivers, system components (e.g. It specifically excludes all files in the user profile and the My Documents folder (regardless of file extension). In Windows XP, System Restore does not affect your documents – it only protects files with certain extensions (such as DLL or EXE), the registry, and a few other things ( details).

Instead, it uses a much simpler mechanism: the moment a program attempts to overwrite a system file, Windows XP makes a copy of it and saves it in a separate folder. In Windows XP, System Restore does not use the Volume Shadow Copy service. How is this different from what’s in Windows XP? By default, it is turned on for your system volume (C:) and protects all the data on that volume, including all the system files, program files, user settings, documents, etc. Volume Shadow Copy maintains snapshots of entire volumes. Does volume shadow copy protect only my system files?
LIMIT SHADOW COPY SPACE DRIVER
after a failed driver or software installation). It is the back-end of the System Restore feature, which enables you to restore your system files to a previous state in case of a system failure (e.g. Volume Shadow Copy is a service that creates and maintains snapshots (“shadow copies”) of disk volumes in Windows 7 and Vista.
