System Restore Explorer is a tool which allows you to browse system restore points on your computer and select individual ones for deletion should you wish to free up some disk space. It also allows you to mount the contents of a restore point into a folder so that you can browse and copy individual files, without the need to perform a full system restore.
When you select a restore point and mountit the tool will create a shortcut to that particular restore point which will allow you to browse the contents and copy files. Once you have finished with a particular restore point you can either use the tool to unmount it or simply delete the shortcut (deleting the shortcut will not delete the restore point).
I have tested this tool on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 beta, unfortunately the SRRemoveRestorePoint function didn’t appear to function as described on Windows XP, so I have had to restrict the use of this tool to Windows Vista and newer (and there is a check in the install and the app 
)
System Restore Explorer uses AlphaVSS, which is a .net library which allows access to the Volume Shadow Copy Service. The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a set of COM interfaces, delivered with various versions of Microsoft Windows, that implements a framework to allow volume backups to be performed while applications on a system continue to write to the volumes. Hence how system restore points are created!
If you’d like to give System Restore Explorer a try then you can download it here, please feel free to leave feedback via the comments section.
History
- 0.0.1-Internal release
- 0.0.2-Alpha release, initially just a blog posting (and only allowed restore points to be deleted, not browsed)
- 0.0.3-Alpha release, this was the first version to allow a restore point to be mounted and the contents to be browsed. Zip file only, no install and only worked on x86 systems.
- 0.0.4-Beta release, now with installer, and AlphaVSS support for both x86 and x64 versions of Windows.
- 0.0.5-Beta release, updated AlphaVSS components, made changes to auto-update system, there is now a menu option to disable the server check (Some people appear to be paranoid about apps that make an outgoing connection!)
Wow — this is a great and very useful little utility. I’m using it on Win 7 64-Bit Home Premium: System Restor Explorer (SRE) works like a charm on my OS. Thanks a ton for developing SRE. I’m genuinely grateful!
It gives me this error message!
This installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify this is a valid windows installer package.
Thank you! Thank You! What a wonderful addition to my tool box. Really makes one wonder why Microsoft didn’t include it! Maybe they didn’t know how! Ya think? Great job, and thanks again.
No updates in 22 months and still in Beta?
Very nice tool, thanks you very much Nic for this.
I see a great potential for this tool in computer forensics, where I may dig for files that the user do not know that I can recover to look at.
Alas we still have a big lot of work with XP machines but this tool wont allow to install, even when it can be VERY usefull at looking for files in XP restore points.
Is it there a possibility that you release a “mount only” version that can run also in XP just for that purpose?
Thanks and best regards,
Roberto
Santiago, Chile
Great tool Nic, thanx very much indeed! I’d be great if I could install on my USB drive as tool. (any chance of a Portable *zip version?)
Good luck.
Have you noticed the warning issued by Microsoft about calling the function SSRemoveRestorePoint directly?
QUOTE
Applications should not call System Restore functions using load-time dynamic linking. Instead, use the LoadLibrary function to load SrClient.dll and GetProcAddress to call the function
UNQUOTE
Perhaps this is the reason it does not work in XP but Windows 7 has greater tolerance? Just a thought.
Thanks a lot for building this awesome tool !!!
Great tool, downloaded and works fine on W7 PC – one of those system utilities that make you wonder why Microsoft don’t include it in Windows…
Have linked to this article from my blog, great work.
Hey, as soon as I run the program, I get an error message that says “Not found”.
I’m running Windows Server 2008 R2 (no Service Pack)
Una buena herramienta; utilizo Restaurar sistema de vez en cuando, por lo que esta aplicación puede ser muy útil….
Hi I’m sure it must only be me as you seem to have lots of people who seem happy however on my Windows 7 x64 computer I’m getting “value was either too large or too small for an Int64″. Any ideas what’s wrong?
I get an error when running on Windows XP that Vista or higher is required. I mention this because it says it was tested on XP.
Thanks
Did you actually read the paragraph? It explains exactly why it does not support Windows XP and the fact that I added the error box deliberatly
This would be an awesome tool to have if it only worked on XP, too bad it doesn’t. Thanks for sharing it anyways.
Thanks Josh, I’d love it to work on XP too, but Microsoft’s SRRemoveRestorePoint API just seems bugged on Windows XP.
Nic I can’t get the utility to work on Windows 7 (I haven’t tried it on Vista yet). I can delete, but can’t mount the restore points. Is there a FAQ or README somewhere? Thanks.
Hi James, there isn’t any FAQ or README, just the blog post. I’m sorry your having problems, unfortunately I don’t currently have any spare time to work on this tool.
Can you please enable this for XP? For the love of god, all I want to do is explore the files.
Totally awesome utility for Vista & 7. Your a legend Nic.
Saved me a fair amount of time recovering a file I needed. Tried a undelete tool right after deleting a file and it wasn’t there but was with this app. Way to go.
I agree with Michael, I do not care about SRRemoveRestorePoint function, I do not want to remove any restore points, I just need to browse files in Windows XP.
You can really just disable this functionality for XP.
Also you cannot rule out MS will fix it in the next service pack…
Thank you!!!
Thanks for your comments, unfortunately I don’t have any time to work on this project at the moment, but the source code is now available on github.
This tool is amazing, if it wasn’t for this tool I would have lost some data for ever.
I would like to make a suggestion for your next release if you are developing one I will be looking forward to it, The suggestion would be for it to only show data that has been archived by the restore point and filter out what isn’t in the restore point.
Rating: ***** 5Star
Fantastic tool. Great job!
Nice app, reviewed it here: http://www.wmlcloud.com/windows/extract-old-files-from-windows-system-restore-points-with-system-restore-explorer/
Is there a program that would work under Windows XP?
Awesome tool.
I’m gonna make a blogpost outta it so that more people knows this tool (n stop bugging me instead). Is it fine with you?
nice. +1 for this.
Awesome! I have this same ability on my Windows Small Business Server 2003, and it reflects the same functionality. Again, great tool!
Nice tool good job
Genius, Bad-ass…nothing more I can say! Adding it to my arsenal of lab tools…
The link to the download install with an error 2203 has anyone else had this problem or if know some other link where you can download system restore explore.I’m surprise the own of this site didn’t check the link first.
Hi, the link is working please try again
Tried to download 2 times. when I try to open I get
Application Error Oxc000007b.
Is the error from the .msi installer package, or after you have installed the app?
Nic, It is after install. Click on icon on desktop and I get the error.
Hi Jack, I’ve never seen this error, but I had a quick Google and I’m sorry to say that most people seem to think this error is a symptom of WORM_KLEZ.E virus. I would recommend you perform a full scan of your system. If it doesn’t find anything then you could try re-installing the .net framework. Sorry I can’t help more.
Great looking tool.
2 requests. Could you add a progress meter or some other indication when the shortcut for a checkpoint mount is created, including the name of the shortuct.
Could you name the mount point shortcuts using the date/time and description shown in your panel.
windows 7 64 ultimate
error
“Valore troppo grande o troppo piccolo per un In64″
c`est pour un usage personnel .
je cherche un programme me permettant de mieux gérer mes points de sauvegarde.
Try re-downloading
Something is messed up with the posting dates. My previous post ended up being November 30, 1999 (over ten years ago
. Anyone know the reason for this?
Great tool, was able to recover Desktop Network Shortcuts deleted by the Win7 ‘Computer Maintenance’ tool.
Suggested from here:
http://superuser.com/questions/355461/windows-7-computer-maintenance-restore-removed-desktop-shortcuts
Oh and another thought, include a donate link on here to assist you with future developments/features!
Sorry I haven’t tested on Windows Server OS
I have changed the short time/date format on my system
e.g. 11/27-Sun/2011
and get the following error pop up for every restore point.
System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
at System.DateTimeParse.Parse(String s, DateTimeFormatInfo dtfi, DateTimeStyles styles)
at ..Compare(Object , Object )
at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.CompareFunc(IntPtr lparam1, IntPtr lparam2, IntPtr lparamSort)
at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.CallWindowProc(IntPtr wndProc, IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DefWndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
—————————————-
SystemRestoreExplorer
Assembly Version: 0.0.5.76
Win32 Version: 0.0.5.76
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/System%20Restore%20Explorer/SystemRestoreExplorer.exe
—————————————-
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
—————————————-
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
—————————————-
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
—————————————-
System.Core
Assembly Version: 3.5.0.0
Win32 Version: 3.5.30729.5420 built by: Win7SP1
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/3.5.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll
—————————————-
System.Management
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Management/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Management.dll
—————————————-
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
—————————————-
Just wanted to let you know….
YOU JUST SAVED MY ASS
Thanks!
Using this utility, can a user restore just one application rather than the entire disk? For instance if my browser is failing say after an update, can I restore just the browser and leave everything else in tact?
Fantastic App! Superb! First Rate!
For the users looking for XP tools, XP ueses an entirely different technology for System Restore. The author can’t just “enable XP” support, because the technologies are too different.
XP puts the core system files into system resotre directories, not mount points. There are other tools out there for Windows XP….it was out a long time.
Microsoft even documents how to restore XP’s registries from a command line. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
However, this is the best Vista utility I have seen. I’ll look for a donate button, becuase you just saved my client a LOT of money and paint.
Thank you!
Just read about this tool looks just like system restore.
Would be nice to make the form bigger.
You may be able to add the ability to save changes to the mounted directory like when making Windows PE or RE Image.
Hi Nic,
Looks like a great tool but using beta software on the OS makes me nervous! Has development on SRE been shelved or can we hope for a full release??
Thanks!
Hi Raggor, development has kind of been shelved, I tend to call all my little projects beta, because I always think of something else to add. But since developing this tool I have become very busy in real life. I’m sorry if the beta phrase makes you nervous, but the tool really is quite useful!
What a terrific tool! Now why didn’t the boys at Microsoft include this functionality with the Windows 7 administration tools? It seems so obvious . . .
Love this program!
If I could suggest one more feature it would be the ability to delete more than 1 restore point at a time.
That way we could delete all restore point except the first 3 or 5 or 10.
Thanks!
Not working for me with Windows 7. Any advice?
Great utility, thanks! Helped me to get over system restore error – I mounted the restore point and just retrieved registry files from it and restored them using registry editor. It would be probably a good idea to also post just zip package and not only installer. In my case, installation failed and I had to use Universal Extractor to extract the files. Luckily, it worked. Thanks!
many thanks for a useful tools