How to Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10

System Restore Points are basically Windows Image files that help to revert back our PC to an earlier state when everything was running normal. Similarly, Volume Shadow copies are the snapshots of data useful to restore PC effectively. If you constantly create system backup, they tend to occupy more and more spaces. When this exceeds than the pre-defined limit, it starts slowing down our PC or leads to different bugs and errors.

In this guide, we cover three different ways to delete System Restore Points in Windows 10. They are – using Disk Cleanup, through System Properties, or via Command Prompt. The first method effectively deletes any restore points that you ever created on the computer. Whereas, the remaining two methods can delete restore points as well as shadow copies simultaneously. Let’s explore these solutions in detail –

Delete Restore Points and Shadow Copies Windows 10

1] Using Disk Cleanup

Microsoft has recently included some of the advanced options in Disk Cleanup Tool starting with Windows 10, 2019 Update. For example: deleting windows.old folder, removing downloads folder, etc. Windows 10 users can use this tool to delete the restore points or shadow copies available on the device. Here’s how to proceed –

Use Win + S to launch the Search App.
Type “ cleanmgr” in the search box and click the top-result.
Select (C:) drive using the drop-down menu and hit OK.
The tool immediately starts calculating space that it can free-up.
Wait for a while, as this might take few seconds depending upon the size of dump files.
Click “Clean up system files” option on the next screen.

A pop-window appears displaying the (C:) drive, hit OK.
Head over to the “More options” tab and click “Clean up” under “System Restore and Shadow copies“.

When there appears a confirmation message, click Delete.

That’s it, the Disk Cleanup starts deleting all the shadow copies that are available on the computer. When this completes the ongoing task, close all running windows, and Restart the PC.

2] Through System Properties wizard

Alternatively, one may also use the System Properties window to clean unnecessarily stored restore points. Here is the complete guideline –

Use Win + R to start the Run dialog.
Type “sysdm.cpl” in the text field and press Enter.
On the System Properties wizard, select “System Protection” tab.
Select “Local disk (C:) (System)” and hit the configure button.

Next, click the Delete button under “Disk Space Usage“.
When a confirmation window comes into view, Click Continue.

That’s it, the wizard immediately starts deleting all restore points available on the C:/ drive.

3] Delete System Restore Points via Command Prompt

Command Prompt too provides an essential way to get rid of old restore points or shadow copies. All you need is to follow the below set of instructions –