Microsoft has officially stated that Windows 11 will now delete System Restore points after 60 days. This means users need to be more cautious and regularly create new restore points. While this allows for multiple snapshots, the system will still remove the oldest ones once they pass the 60-day retention period (now standard on Windows 11 24H2).

Was it longer or shorter before? It's difficult to say definitively. Since Microsoft rolled out the June 2025 update introducing the new 60-day rule, I've been testing various builds of Windows 11 across several PCs from different OEMs to understand how things were prior to this change.

Some of my Windows 11 systems kept restore points for only 10 days, while others held them for up to 90 days.

Microsoft’s current documentation on “System Restore” doesn’t mention anything about the previous retention duration. However, when I looked into older resources, I found a document titled “SystemRestoreConfig class,” dated December 2020, which refers to Windows Server and indicates a default 90-day retention:

The time interval for which restore points are preserved, in seconds. When a restore point becomes older than this specified interval, it is deleted. The default age limit is 90 days.

Considering the document dates back to 2020, it's reasonable to assume that 90 days was the official restore point retention for Windows 10, Server, and earlier versions. However, since the release of Windows 11 in 2021, the duration has varied between 10 and 90 days—often as short as 10 days. Now, with the latest change, Microsoft has standardized this at 60 days.

In the notes accompanying the June 2025 update, Microsoft confirmed that restore points will now be fixed at a 60-day lifespan.

“After installing the June 2025 Windows security update, Windows 11, version 24H2 will retain system restore points for up to 60 days,” Microsoft stated in an updated support guide. “This 60-day limit will also apply to future versions of Windows 11.”

After applying the update, Windows Latest validated the 60-day change using the following PowerShell command:

<code>PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $key = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore'
>> (Get-ItemProperty -Path $key -Name RPLifeInterval).RPLifeInterval
<strong>5184000</strong></code>

As shown, the value returned is 5184000, which equals 60 days when converted from seconds (5184000 ÷ 86,400 seconds).

On Windows 10, the value remains at 7776000 seconds, equivalent to 90 days, consistent with older documentation.

A now-deleted 13-year-old support article also indicated that Windows originally set restore points to expire after 90 days. This applied to Windows Vista, Windows 7, and later releases. Additionally, if your device ran low on disk space, Windows would automatically delete all restore points to free storage—something that continues today.

How to create a System Restore point in Windows 11

System Restore serves as a safety net, allowing you to roll back your system after a problematic driver, update, or app installation. To create one manually, follow these steps (recommended every few weeks):

1. Open the Start menu and search for Create a restore point.
2. This opens the System Protection tab inside System Properties.
3. Under Protection Settings, ensure that the partition where you want to store the backup is marked as protected.
4. Choose the desired partition and click ‘Configure’ to enable protection.
   
5. Once configured, click Create and proceed through the setup wizard.
   
6. A System Restore point will now be created, set to expire after 60 days.

How often do you create a System Restore point? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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