How To View All Restore Points on This PC in 3 Simple Steps

System Restore can be a lifesaver when something goes haywire with your PC – but it’s only useful if you actually know whether restore points exist. Sometimes, you try to roll back a driver or undo a weird system change, only to find no restore points in sight. Frustrating, right? Well, this quick guide is here to show you how to check all restore points, whether you’re rocking Windows 11 or 10. You’ll get a clearer picture of what’s available, and maybe even create fresh restore points if needed. Because, of course, Windows likes to make it a little complicated sometimes.

By the end, you’ll at least know if your restore points even exist—or if the system isn’t saving them at all. Super useful before making any major changes. Let’s dive in.

How to See System Restore Points Using System Protection

Step 1: Searching for restore points

This is the most straightforward way and usually the first thing to try:

Press Windows + S and type “restore point”.
Click on Create a restore point from the search results.
In the System Properties window that pops up, go to the System Protection tab—this is where Windows handles restore points.
Hit the System Restore… button.
Click Next, and you’ll see a list of all available restore points—if any are there.
Select one to see its details and click Scan for affected programs to see what that restore might change or remove.

Getting to this menu is pretty reliable, and on most setups, it’s the quickest way to peek at your restore points.

Step 2: Listing restore points via Command Prompt (Advanced)

If you’re into the command line or want a more technical approach, this method works too. Not sure why it’s not more obvious, but you gotta love command prompts sometimes:

Press Windows + R, type cmd, then tap Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run as Admin.
In the black window, enter vssadmin list shadows and hit Enter.
What you get is a detailed list of shadow copies, which includes all your system restore points. Each restore point shows creation date and some IDs, so it’s pretty raw but usable info.

This method isn’t perfect—sometimes the output is a bit cluttered—but on one setup it worked just fine, on another, not so much. Still, it’s worth a shot if you’re troubleshooting deeper issues.

Step 3: What if no restore points show up?

Here’s the thing—if those lists are empty, it’s usually because of one of these reasons:

System Protection is turned off: You have to turn it on manually, otherwise Windows won’t create any restore points.
Low disk space: Windows deletes older restore points to free up space, so if your drive is nearly full, they might be gone.
Fresh Windows install or major upgrades: Sometimes, restore points don’t carry over after clean installs or really big OS upgrades.

If you want to fix this or manually create some restore points, here’s how:

Open Create a restore point again via search.
Under System Protection, click the Create button.
Name it something descriptive, like “Before installing the new graphics driver, ” then hit Create again.

This should start saving restore points for future rollbacks. Also, remember to keep enough free space on your system drive, or Windows will just keep deleting oldest ones.

Summary: how to view all restore points on your computer

✅ Use the System Protection settings or Create a restore point dialog to see and pick restore points.
✅ Run vssadmin list shadows in an admin Command Prompt for a more raw view.
✅ Turn on System Protection if it’s off, so Windows can start saving restore points again.
✅ Manually create backup restore points before big updates or system tweaks.

Wrap-up

Knowing whether restore points actually exist can save a lot of headache later. Whether you stick to the GUI or prefer the command line, just checking is half the battle. If you’re missing restore points, making sure System Protection is enabled and disk space is good to go helps prevent surprises. Sometimes, Windows just doesn’t keep up, and a little manual intervention is needed. But hey, with this knowledge, it’s a lot easier to keep your system recoverable.

Hopefully, this shaves off a few hours for someone chasing down missing restore points. Fingers crossed this helps.