Disk Cleanup can be used to remove all but the most recent Restore Point. Do this only if your computer is running normally and you’re having no problems. If you are having problems you shouldn’t clear old restore points because you may have to go back to an earlier restore point. Restore points take up a lot of disk space, so if your computer is running well, there’s not much sense in keeping a dozen restore points. One or two recent restore points should be plenty. If your computer isn’t running well, and hasn’t been running well, don’t remove any old restore points.
This tip is for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 (32 and 64bit).
Here’s how to remove old system restore points using Windows XP Disk Cleanup:
– Click Start then Run and type Cleanmgr then press enter
– Select the drive where Windows is installed (normally C:\ )and press OK
– Click on the More Options tab (see image under Vista instructions (below). Windows XP’s dialog is very similar.
– Click on Cleanup under System Restore
Here’s how to remove old system restore points in Windows Vista and Windows 7:
– Click Start
– Type clean in the Start Search box.
– Click Disk Cleanup from the search results list.
– Select Files from All Users on this computer option.
– Click OK on Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows User Access Control permission request dialog.
– Choose a drive letter from the drop down list, and press OK.
– Disk Cleanup will perform calculation to determine how much space it can free. Once done, click on More Options tab.
– Under the section of System Restore and Shadow Copies, click on Clean up… button.
– Click on Delete button when Windows asks whether are you sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point.
– Disk Cleanup will erase all old restore points or files -except for the most recent restore point.
I just bought W/7 64 bit Dell desktop . Can you create a restore point on it like you can on XP home or or are you left with what windows creates ? Haven’t gotten brave enough to try and set it up yet and not really ready to trash my XP Home yet . Any pointers you can give me will sure be helpful .
Charlene
I don’t have a choice of drives or a “More Options” tab on my Win7 64bit pc.
You have to follow the instructions exactly….all Windows 7 computers have the same exact dialog.
Thanks for this one, T.C. {and compnay}. An excellent article. I was actually considering deleting old restore points, till I read this, as I am experiencing some problems. I swear the keyboard suffers from diabolical assignment!
I can’t believe there isn’t a utility out there that lets you selectively delete restore points — like maybe deleting all but the last 3 or 5 or ??? Deleting all but the most recent one has always made me nervous (how do you know the last one is “good”?). Is there some freeware, shareware or other program that lets you do this?
Before using disk cleanup and removing all but last restore point I open up system restore and create one. It tells me if it was successful or not at creating a good restore point. I assume you can do this in 7 and 8 as well, I still hang on to Vista.
I too like selectivity as to removing Restore Points. Could you respond further on this subject?