How to Restore Windows 11 to Previous Date (2 Methods)

The Reason for Restoring Windows 11 to Previous Date

Restoring your computer to a previous date usually means being in as good a working condition as you like. Usually, it is needed when people encounter some problems in their daily life and work, or when they find that the system environment is not working for them.

This often happens after they upgrade the operating system (OS) or load the OS erroneously, change some system settings, cause a software conflict, or install some non-removable applications/services/drivers.

Sometimes you can fix these problems through conventional means, but in many cases, a system failure will cause the computer to not work properly or even not boot up. So this is when you need to seek more effective help.

So how do I restore my computer to an earlier date? Here are two common methods to restore your PC to earlier date of Windows 11/10.

• Method 1: Restore Windows 11 to Previous Date Using System Restore
• Method 2: Restore PC to Previous Date in Windows 11 with Best Freeware

Method 1: Restore Windows 11 to Previous Date Using System Restore

In Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, there is an embedded tool called “System Restore” that creates a system image backup and restores it to your computer. System Restore is a legacy feature embedded in Windows 11 that continuously checks your system when there are significant changes made on your computer, enabling you to create a snapshot of the current operating system state and save that snapshot as a “restore point”. Once needed, you can rely on this restore point to go back to a previous date.

Before you restore computer to a previous date, you must create a system restore point for your PC. Firstly, you should enable system protection on Windows 11, which is OFF by default. After System Protection is enabled, Windows 11 will automatically start creating a restore point when there are new updates or specific system changes.

When your PC has problems later, you can use the created system restore point to perform Windows 11 recovery if needed. Keep reading the two cases to learn the detailed steps of system restore.

Case 1 - If Your Windows 11 is Bootable

If your system is bootable, but you want to restore it because it is not behaving as expected, try below steps.

1. Open the System Properties window and click the System Restore button.

2. A new System Restore window will open on your computer. Click Next on the screen.

3. Then, select the restore point you created earlier and that you wish to restore. You can click here on Scan for affected programs to see which apps or programs will be affected when you restore to the selected point.

4. If you have enabled System Restore for more than one drive, you can select it by clicking the checkbox in front of the drive in the list. Please note that you must always restore the drive containing Windows.

5. After that, you will be able to see the information about the restore point from which you want to recover your computer. Read the on-screen instructions carefully and then click Finish to start the system restore process.

In this way, we complete the restore process for the bootable Windows 11 system.

Case 2 - If Your Windows 11 is not Bootable

Here is how you can perform System Restore in this case.

When you cannot log on to your computer, you can access Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and use the system restore point you created to restore your computer. This is how to run Windows 11 system restore from boot.

1. Start your Windows 11 machine and quickly shut it down before it reaches or is at the boot screen. Do this three times repeatedly and then you will boot into WinRE. Click on the Troubleshoot option in the recovery environment.

2. Moving on, click on the Advanced options from the Troubleshoot screen.

3. Next, select System Restore from the list present on the Advanced options screen.

4.  Then, a System Restore window will appear on your screen. The rest of the steps are the same as step 2,3,4,5 mentioned above.

This is all about creating and using System Restore Point on Windows 11 computers. Although System Restore Point can be used to restore a system to an earlier point in time, some users have reported that they have encountered some problems using the System Restore feature on Windows 11 - they can't create a restore point on Windows 11.

Method 2: Restore PC to Previous Date in Windows 11 with Best Freeware

When System Restore fails, you can ask for help from third-party programs to restore your computer to an earlier date like AOMEI Backupper Standard, which is a professional and reliable system backup and restore tool. Not only operating system, but it can also be used to backup and restore partitions, disks, or individual files & folders. 

To use AOMEI Backupper to restore your PC to a previous date, you must firstly create a system backup image with this software for recovery needs. After that, you will be able to perform the steps to restore your system.

Continue reading for detailed steps.

Case 1: Windows 11 Can Boot

Step 1. Free download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install, and run it.

Step 2. In the main interface, click Restore on the left menu and click Select Task or Select Image File to find the image.

Step 3. Select the system backup in the following window and then click Next.

Step 4. Then, select to restore the entire backup or a part and click Next. 

Normally, you need to choose a path for your restoration after this step. But if AOMEI Backupper can detect this image and you want to restore it to its original location, this software will choose the destination path for you.

Step 5. Then, click Start Restore to execute the progress. When the progress reached 100%, click Finish to exit.

Note: If you buy a new computer, you can use “Universal Restore” function (available in professional edition) with a bootable media to restore system files on the new computer even with dissimilar hardware configuration.

That’s how AOMEI Backupper can help you solve problems effectively.

Case 2: Windows 11 Cannot Boot

When your Windows system has crashed and cannot boot up correctly, you can create bootable media with AOMEI Backupper.

After booting from the bootable disk you created, AOMEI Backupper will load up automatically. Follow the steps in Case 1 to finish Windows 11 system recovery.

Summary

That’s all about how to restore Windows 11 to previous date. After reading this article, you may know how to use the System Restore feature that comes with Windows 11 to restore your PC to its previous working state. Or you can use a more reliable third-party software - AOMEI Backupper to finish this task.

But I suggest you use the latter, for it offers you all-around backup and recovery solutions, such as backup Windows 11 to USB, etc. With this freeware, you will never worry about system problems. Download it to have a try!