System Restore is a basic feature present in Windows 7, but not all users are fans of it because, when activated, it creates several restore points and this takes up space from your hard drive and eventually if you don’t manage it correctly it will occupy all the free space on the system partition.

The System Restore function has been present on Microsoft OS installations since the release of Windows Me and it is featured on Windows XP and Vista also, while Windows 2000 didn’t include it within it tools and features. System Restore allows users to roll back all system files, installed applications, registry keys and all the other files to a previous state in case your computer gets infected with a malware or the OS malfunctions. So, if anything goes wrong with your computer’s OS you can easily use the System Restore to roll back its files to a point when everything worked, but since the Windows 7 is one of Microsoft’s most stable version then you can choose to disable the restore service.

Disabling the System Restore means that more free space will be available and you can use it to store other files, but remember that by doing this you won’t be able to roll back the Windows 7 installing to a previous working state in the event of malfunction. Alternatively you can choose to reduce the hard drive space it occupies and I will teach how to do this and how to disable completely the Windows 7 System Restore. First thing that you will learn is how to manually disable the System Restore. Please note that by disabling it you won’t be able to roll back your OS to a previous backup in case something goes wrong after changing settings. So, here’s what you need to do:

How to disable the System Restore in Windows 7

1.  Open the Control Panel menu and change the view to All Items.

2. Click ‘System’ icon and then click the link that says ‘System Protection’.

3. Now, System Properties menu appears and you need to select on the system disc line. Click Configure.

4. The System Protection for system partition opens up and now you need to check the radio button located next to ‘Turn off system protection’.

5. Now, you will be asked if you are sure that you wish to complete the action, Click Yes. Please note that now all the other system restore points will be completely removed and you can’t retrieve them. After this task completes, you should close all the opened dialog menus.

6. That’s it, now the System Restore service has been disabled, but in case disaster strikes your computer won’t have any viable backup for the system settings and files.

If you don’t wish to completely disable the System Restore protection for your PC, then you can choose to adjust the space it needs to store the backups for your OS. Here’s how to do it:

• Open Control Panel, then click System.

• Now click on the link titled System Protection.

• Select the Local Disk System and then click on the Configure button.

• Now select the amount of space you wish for the System Restore service to use for creating backups of your system settings and files. Please note that by reducing the space it means that there will be fewer System Restore points for you to choose in case something bad happens to your hard drive.

After you managed to decrease / disable the System Restore points then you can close all the opened screens and dialogs. I think that these were all the instructions that you needed, for any other questions please use our comments field to post them and I try to help you overcame any trouble you’ve encountered while disabling the System Restore for your Windows 7.