Solved: System Restore Greyed Out in Windows 10

The error: System Restore greyed out in Windows 10

“I am using Windows 10 64 bit. When I access the System Protection tab, the System Restore is greyed out, then I select C drive and click Configure button, the option Turn on System Protection also greyed out. Can somebody help me with this?”

System Restore is a built-in feature in Windows that allows one to restore computer to the previous state when problems occur. Unfortunately, sometimes, this feature is greyed out and cannot be enabled. When you find the System Restore button greyed out in Windows 10, do not be panic. You can refer to this article and find solutions.

How to fix System Restore greyed out in Windows 10 easily?

Sometimes, you cannot turn on system protection in Windows 10 because your System Restore is disabled by your system administrator. You can try the methods below to solve this issue.

Method 1: Fix disabled System Restore using Registry Editor

1.       Press Win + R to bring up the Run dialog box. In it, type regedit.exe and hit Enter.

2.       Navigate to the following key in the left pane of the Registry Editor window:

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

3.       Delete the value DisableConfig and DisableSR.

4.       Close Registry Editor. Restart your computer to see if the System Restore button is usable now.

Method 2: Enable System Restore with Group Policy Editor

If your Windows is shipped with the Group Policy Editor, then you can follow the steps below:

1.     Type gpedit.msc in the Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.

2.     Navigate to the following setting:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > System Restore.

3.     Find “Turn off System Restore” setting. Double click on it and set it to Not configured or Disabled and click OK.

4.     Close Group Policy Editor and restart. You will find System Restore has been enabled.

✐ Note:

In Windows 10, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. If you are using Windows 10 Home edition, you may try the following thing to fix System Restore greyed out:

1.     Click Configure... button.

2.     Select Turn on system protection and click OK. Check if the System Restore button is available then.

Method 3: Make System Restore usable by elevated Command Prompt

1.     Tap the search button in the task bar and type “cmd”. Right click “cmd” and select "Run as administrator".

2.     In Command Prompt, input the following command and press Enter to execute it:

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe /d srrstr.dll,ExecuteScheduledSPPCreation

✐ Note:

The related system process may be not running in the background, so you need to start it manually:

1.     Press Win + R and type services.msc into the Run dialog. Click OK to open the Services window. You can also open it by navigating to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services.

2.     In Services window, locate the “Volume Shadow Copy”, right click on it and select Start. If you want the process to run automatically the next time, you can double click on it and set the Startup type to Automatic and click OK.

Better way to protect your Windows PC

As a matter of fact, System Restore doesn’t provide full backup solutions. It plays a limited role to protect your computer. System Restore does restore your system files, but it will not restore any of your personal files like emails, music, videos, documents, and photos. Besides, it is vulnerable. As it saves restore points in the corresponding volume, if the volume crashes, you will lose all your files on the volume as well as restore points.

To have a better protection for your computer, you can turn to the best free backup software - AOMEI BackupperStandard. It offers you more flexible options to create image backups. You can use it to run System Backup, which includes your personal data. If you want to protect your whole disk, you can use the Disk Backup feature. You can also schedule an incremental backup, so you do not worry about the backup disk space as incremental backup only backs up the changed data after the first full backup.

With its user-friendly interface, you can easily handle this software. And this software is designed for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP. Take disk backup as an example. Let’s see how to protect the hard drive with AOMEI Backupper easily.

Step 1. Download AOMEI Backupper, install, and launch this tool.

Step 2. At the main interface, click Backup and select Disk Backup.

Step 3. The "Task Name" can be set so that it can be distinguished from other backup tasks. Select a source disk that you want to backup by clicking Add Disk. You can backup several disks at once.

Step 4. Select a destination path to store the image file.

>> Options: Click “General” to enable email notification. Click “Advanced” to choose the compression level for a backup and split image files, etc.

>> Schedule: Set backup tasks to run automatically at the frequency of daily, weekly, or monthly.

>> Scheme: Delete old backups and keep the latest versions of the backup image file, which enables you to manage disk space. This feature is only available in paid versions like AOMEI Backupper Professional.

Step 5. Click Start Backup to begin the backup process and wait until the operation is complete. Click Finish to exit the interface.

☺ Learn more from video tutorial:

Conclusion

There are three solutions offered in this article to help you resolve System Restore greyed out in Windows 10. To get a better way to protect your computer, you may use AOMEI Backupper. It offers you various backup types with advanced settings.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.