5 Ways to Restore Windows 8 System from Boot | 2025 Guide

How to Restore System from Boot in Windows 8.1

"I want to do a system restore from boot, meaning right as I turn on my computer. I researched a lot but things didn't seem to be working. I'd rather get a straight answer here, Please help. "  - Question from answer.microsoft.com

Don’t worry, there are multiple ways to restore Windows 8/8.1 from boot, just find the way to perform Windows system restore from boot.

Windows 8/8.1 System Restore with Refresh Your PC

1. Please press ALT + F10 (or SHIFT + F8, F12, etc) key combination as soon as possible after hitting on Power button, and it will bring up the Choose an option window. (If you can boot into Windows 8, Press SHIFT and click Restart to bring the window)

2. Choose Troubleshoot.

3. Choose Refresh your PC.

It will reinstalling Windows 8.1 to restore system to normal state and keeping your files.

Windows 8/8.1 Factory Reset from Boot

1. Please press Alt + F10 (or SHIFT + F8, F12, etc) key combination as soon as possible after hitting on Power button, and it will bring up the Choose an option window.

2. Choose Troubleshoot.

3. Choose Reset your PC.

4. Press Next.

5. Select Just remove my files.

6. Hit on Reset to perform Windows 8.1 factory reset from boot.

Be careful, this way will delete everything on the Windows 8/8.1 and restore Windows 8/8.1 to factory settings.

Windows 8/8.1 System Restore Command

If you still can boot into Windows 8/8.1 operating system, follow the steps to restore Windows 8:

Input cmd in Windows 8/8.1 search box, and right click Command Prompt and Choose Run as administrator.

Type the command and execute:

rstrui.exe

It will bring up the Windows 8/8.1 System Restore window. Tick Recommended restore, and hit Next >.

Confirm the your restore point and click Finish.

Click Yes to continue Windows 8 system restore.

It will restart and perform Windows 8 system restore from boot.

If you cannot boot up your computer, you could use command prompt with Windows 8/8.1 installation media to perform Windows 8 system restore from boot:

1. Insert Windows 8/8.1 installation media and restart the computer.

2. Select language > Next.

3. Select Repair your Computer > Skip this drive.

4. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt and type the command:

rstrui.exe

Then follow the above steps to restore Windows 8.

Windows 8 System Restore with Windows Installation Disc

Except for the above solution, you could boot into Windows 8/8.1 installation media, and go to Advanced Boot Options. Let’s do a system restore from boot.

Step 1. Choose Troubleshoot at the Choose an option window, and then select Advanced options.

Step 2. Select System Restore from the list.

Step 3. When System Restore is ready, you are asked to choose a user account to continue. Enter the password for the selected account.

Step 4. Click Next to continue.

Step 5. Make sure Choose a different restore point is selected and then click Next.

Step 6. Select a restore point from the list. Then click Next.

Step 7. Click Next at the Confirm your restore point screen. Then click Yes to confirm.

Step 8. Wait for the recovery process to be done. Then your computer will restart.

Step 9. Once you log in Windows and go to your Desktop, the confirmation message appears: System Restore completed successfully.

Restore Windows 8 from Boot with the Free Backup Software

Before performing Windows 8 system restore from boot, make sure you have created a system image with the free Windows backup and restore software - AOMEI Backupper Standard before the system failure, then you could restore Windows 8 in a fast way. This freeware is available in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and XP, 32-bit and 64-bit.

Assumming that you have a system backup created by AOMEI Backupper, now you could create Windows 8 recovery disk to restore the Windows 8 system image to normal state.

Please download the free backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard to get it a try.

Create Windows 8 Recovery Disk

If your Windows 8 computer won’t boot, and there is no Windows 8/8.1 installation disc, you could create a Windows 8 recovery disk on the other normal computer. Here it is:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, click Tools > Create Bootable Media in order.

Step 2. Tick WinPE - Create bootable disc based on Windows PE option, and press Next >>.

Step 3. Select USB Boot Device and hit Next >> to create a Windows 8 recovery disk.

Restore Windows 8 from Boot

Use the Windows 8 recovery USB to boot your Windows 8 computer, and then AOMEI Backupper Standard will be automatically running. Then use the system image created before to perform Windows 8 system restore from boot. The steps listed below:

Step 1. Click Restore tab at the left side, Select Image File or Select Task to locate the Windows 8 system image.

Step 2. Select a backup point for Windows 8 system backup, and hit Next >>.

Step 3. Tick Restore this system backup, and choose Next >>.

Step 4. Press Start Restore >> to perform Windows 8 system restore from boot easily.

Tip: The Universal Restore option is specially useful to restore Windows 8 from boot while restore to another computer, and make it bootable without any issues.

Further Reading: Create a restore point in Windows 8/8.1

1. Press Win + F key to open Windows 8/8.1 Search box, input create a restore point and hit Enter, click Settings, then click Create a restore point.

2. It will open the System Protection tab in System Properties. Select the drive you want to create restore point, and click Configure > Turn on system protection > OK. (if the system protection is on that drive, please ignore the step)

Tip: you could turn off the system protection at the step by ticking Disable system protection.

2. Click Create... to create a restore point. Input a description and click Create to start create a restore point in Windows 8.

Summary

There are 5 different ways to do Windows 8 system restore from boot, which enables you to restore Windows 8 to normal state or factory settings.

Keep backing up Windows operating system and other data on regular basis could prevent you from the data loss. Hence, it’s highly recommended to create Windows 8 restore point according to the above steps or create Windows 8 system backup with the free backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard, and this freeware could also help you backup entire hard disk, individual partition, files, etc. It’s specially useful to clone Windows 8 hard drive for hard drive replacement with Disk Clone.

Besides, for advanced users, you could try AOMEI Backupper Professional with command line backup, restore to dissimilar hardware computer, dynamic disk backup, etc.