Page 852 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Or, of course, you can click “Choose a different restore point” if you think

that maybe you didn’t rewind your PC back far enough and want to try
again with a different restore point.

Turning System Restore Off

You really shouldn’t turn off System Restore. It’s incredibly useful to hit

rewind and get a smoothly running PC, even if you never do find out what
the trouble was.

But if you’re an advanced power user with no hard drive space to spare—is

there such a person?—then open the System Protection tab of the System
Properties box (shown in Figure 16-3). Click Configure, click “Disable
system protection,” and then click OK. (See the box on “Performing a

System Restore” for details.)

In the “Are you sure?” box, click Yes. That’s it. You’re flying without a net
now, baby.

File History

System Restore is an amazing, powerful, career-saving feature—but it’s
awfully self-interested. It cares only about protecting Windows.

How can you rewind your documents to their earlier, healthier, or pre-edited

conditions?

File History is a time machine for documents in the same way System
Restore is a time machine for your system software. It’s an incredible safety

net against damage, accidental modification, or late-night bouts of ill-
advised editing. It automatically backs up files in your libraries, on the
desktop, in your address book, and on your OneDrive. If anything bad
happens to the originals, you’re covered. You can also rewind documents to

specific dates—if, for example, you decide your novel was better before
you tinkered with it last week. It’s a lot like the Time Machine feature on

the Mac.