System Restore vs Reset This PC — Which One Do You Need?

These two sit next to each other in the recovery menu and do entirely different things. Choosing wrong costs you either an afternoon of reinstalling software or an afternoon of discovering the problem is still there.

The decision comes down to two questions: do you know roughly when it broke, and is the damage to Windows itself or to something you installed.

The difference in one table

The row that catches people is applications under Reset. Keep my files keeps your documents and photos. It does not keep Office, Photoshop, your games, your printer drivers or anything else you installed. Windows helpfully leaves a list of what it removed on the desktop.

Which one your problem calls for

The pattern underneath: System Restore is a rewind, so it only helps if there is a point in time worth rewinding to. If the machine has felt wrong for six months there is no such point, and restoring to a date within that period changes nothing.

Using System Restore properly

System Restore snapshots system files, installed program registrations, drivers and registry settings. It does not back up your documents, which is why it is fast and also why it is not a backup.

Check you have points first. Press Win+R, type rstrui, press Enter. If the wizard opens with restore points listed, you have options. If it says none exist, skip to the next section.

Alternatively, search Start for Create a restore point, which opens System Properties on the System Protection tab — the place where you both enable it and reach the restore wizard.

To restore:

1. Run rstrui or use the System Protection tab’s System Restore button.
2. Tick Show more restore points to see automatic ones, not just the last.
3. Select a point from before the problem started.
4. Click Scan for affected programs. This lists what will be removed and what will be restored. Read it — it is the only preview you get.
5. Confirm and let it run. The machine restarts and spends 10–20 minutes on it.

If the result is worse, System Restore can be undone: run it again and an Undo System Restore option appears at the top.

Turn it on, because it is probably off

System Protection is disabled by default on many Windows 11 installations, which is why so many people discover they have no restore points at the moment they need one.

In System Properties → System Protection, select the C: drive, click Configure, choose Turn on system protection, and set Max usage to around 5–10% of the drive. Click Create to make one immediately.

Windows then creates points automatically before updates and driver installations. The space is reclaimed by deleting the oldest points when the limit is reached, so it is a fixed cost rather than a growing one.

Using Reset this PC properly

Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC. Two decisions follow.

First: Keep my files or Remove everything.

• Keep my files preserves your user folders and removes all applications. This is the right choice for fixing a broken machine you intend to keep.
• Remove everything wipes the drive. Use it when selling, giving away, or dealing with malware you do not trust a partial reset to clear.

Second: Cloud download or Local reinstall.

• Cloud download fetches a fresh Windows image from Microsoft, several gigabytes. Slower, but it cannot inherit corruption from the local recovery files.
• Local reinstall rebuilds from files already on the drive. Faster, and pointless if those files are the damaged ones.

If a previous reset failed, choose cloud download. That is usually exactly what went wrong.

Back up first regardless. Keep my files is reliable, and it is still an operation that rewrites the system partition. Copy anything irreplaceable to an external drive or cloud storage before starting. A reset interrupted by a power cut on a laptop at 8% battery is a genuinely bad afternoon.

Before you commit, write down what you will need to reinstall: application installers, licence keys, printer drivers, and the browser profile sync you will want to sign back into.

The middle options people miss

There are two repairs between these extremes, and both are often the correct answer.

Uninstall a problem update. If the trouble started the day an update installed, remove that specific update rather than rewinding the whole system. Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates. This is the right first move when the symptom is version-specific, and a Windows 11 machine that slowed down after an update covers what else that scenario usually involves.

Repair with DISM and SFC. For corrupt system files specifically, this fixes the damage without reverting or reinstalling anything. In Terminal (Admin):

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

Allow 10–30 minutes. DISM pausing at a percentage for several minutes is normal.

An in-place upgrade is the strongest option that keeps your applications. Download the Windows 11 ISO or run the Installation Assistant, run setup from within Windows, and choose to keep personal files and apps. It replaces every system file while leaving your software installed — effectively a reset without the reinstallation afternoon. It takes about an hour and it is underused.

What people get wrong

• Treating System Restore as a backup. It does not protect your documents at all. A deleted file is not recoverable from a restore point.
• Expecting restore to remove malware. Many families of malware delete restore points, and those that do not often survive outside the restored scope.
• Choosing Keep my files and expecting programs to survive. They do not. This is the single most common surprise.
• Resetting before diagnosing. A machine short of RAM or running a mechanical drive is slow again within a week of a fresh install.
• Restoring to a point from last month for a problem that started yesterday. Pick the most recent point before the symptom, not the oldest available.

Realistic expectations

System Restore, when a suitable point exists, takes about fifteen minutes and either works clearly or does not. It is worth trying first in any situation where you can name roughly when the trouble began.

Reset this PC works almost always, and the Windows half takes an hour or so. The part people underestimate is everything after: reinstalling applications, signing back into accounts, reconfiguring printers and reinstating settings. Budget most of a day, not the ninety minutes the progress bar implies.

And if the underlying cause was hardware — failing storage, insufficient memory — neither one helps for long. Diagnose before you rebuild.