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Is Windows 11’s 60-Day Limit on Restore Points Too Short?

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2 days ago

Microsoft recently confirmed a 60-day limit on System Restore points. Is that enough time to be useful in real-world situations?

A Windows 11 PC.

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

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Alan

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When I asked Microsoft to search for some vital files that OneDrive had lost, they eventually came back and told me that they could only search for 60 days back.
I had failed to notice that Windows 11 had hijacked my PC and was forcing all files to save to OneDrive, so I had no local copies.
Luckily, I found some of the files on a USB that I thought I had lost, and I was able to recreate the others from saved spreadsheets.
I have now uncoupled my PC from OneDrive, and save locally. I have also bought a separate hard drive for backups, and a subscription to iDrive for Cloud storage.
I hadn't realised that this unannounced 60-day limit also applied to Restore points.

2025-07-04 09:48:57
Neilw20

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Should be unlimited. I often need to go way back and this is BAD.
Let the user decide, or at least give a good reason AND WARN FIRST!
Evaporation is for water. Not my computer(s)

2025-07-04 12:34:36
Wolfgang

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I think 60 days is enough, but it should be up to the user to decide.
It should be maybe a default setting, and you can change it to a longer time span.
I just checked and have about 8 restore points for the last 60 days. I don't know what could be achieved with going back further. For this, I have backups. Never had the need to go further back than a few weeks and even when I had to restore, it rarely solved the problem on Windows 10.
Running Windows 11 on a system for over a year and never used it.

2025-07-04 13:23:28
Richard

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I personally don't think 60 days is enough time to allow for the need to restore the Windows system. I have went as long as a year before encountering problems that required me to Restore to a previous reliable point in which to carry on forward from. 60 days just seems too short for me. So to get around this we each need to perform a restore point every 60 days to keep something reliable for backup. What does Microsoft have to lose by leaving well enough alone?

2025-07-04 12:26:33
Fredrick

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My question is WHY is there a time limit at all? These files are on MY computer, why should I not determine when it's time to delete ANYTHING on MY computer.

2025-07-04 11:29:57
sarah

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very well said!

2025-07-04 17:44:54
Robert

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It Does Not Matter! Its A Junk OS! All Earley Versions Of Windows OS, Up To 7 Are Ok But 10 And 11 Are Junk! Windows 98 Is Still The Best In Spite Of The Fact That In Order To Have Enough Space On The PC For All The Apps You Need A Second Hard Drive With As Meny Partitions On It As Possible! I Know This From My Experience Using Windows 98!
I Had A PC Set Up That Way And It Worked Like A Charm! I Am Not Kidding!!!!!!

2025-07-04 21:04:19
sarah

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Yes. It is way too short! Why make such a drastic change? Why shouldn't Window's 11 users make up their own mind?! Another way of Microsoft thinking that they own your computers!

2025-07-04 17:43:05

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