Normally, Windows will create these system restore points automatically before certain events, i.e., installing new software, updating a driver, installing Windows updates, etc. If none of these events occur, Windows will create a restore point every seven days.

In terms of files, System Restore will save a copy of a file or folder when it is modified, but only when a restore point is created. You can then restore a previous version of the file or folder by simply right-clicking on the file or folder.

Do not think of system restore as a backup solution for your files and folders because it is not nearly as robust as using Windows backup or a third-party backup program.

Enable System Restore

By default, System Restore should already be enabled on Windows unless it was turned off manually. To enable System Restore, we need to open the System Protection tab. You can do this in one of two ways. Note that the below instructions will work on Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10.

Click on the Start button and then type in system restore. You’ll probably get a couple of different options and the one you want to click on is Create a restore point.

If System Restore is disabled, you’ll see Off listed in the Protection column for each partition on the hard drive.

Note that if your computer has multiple hard drives, you might see all of them listed under Protection Settings. Windows is normally installed under C: (System), so click on that to select it. Then click on the Configure button.

Click on the Turn on system protection radio button and then adjust the slider under Disk Space Usage to a value between 3 and 5 percent. Note that this value is going to be based on the size of the partition, not the size of the hard disk.

Recommended Disk Space Usage for System Restore

This means you might have a 1 TB hard drive, but split into a C and D partition. C is the system partition where Windows is installed and might only be 100 GB and the rest is on the D partition. If you enable System Restore on the C drive, then 3% will be 3 GB and 5% will be 5 GB.

If you just have one huge C partition that is the size of the entire drive, then 3% of 1TB would be a whopping 30 GB, which is huge. In these types of cases, just set it to 1% or 2%.

Whatever percentage you use, just make sure the value is greater than 1000 MB or 1 GB as a minimum. Note that each GB will be able to hold anywhere from 1 to 3 restore points, depending on what you have on that partition.

I recommend a value between 3 GB and 10 GB for system restore as it can prove to be very handy in certain situations. The more you have, the more likely you’ll be able to recover your computer from a problem.

If you want to reduce the amount of space system restore is using on your system, just adjust the slider to a lower percentage. In addition, you can click the Delete button to remove all of the current restore points for the drive. This way, you can keep system protection enabled, but clear up some space if you are running out of hard disk space.

Disable System Restore

Disabling System Restore is just as easy as enabling it. Click on Start, type in system restore and then click on Create a restore point.

Select the hard drive you want to disable protection for in the list and then click Configure. On the next screen, select either Turn off system protection or Disable system protection.

Click OK and system restore will be turned off. You’ll also get a message stating that all restore points will be deleted from the disk and new ones will not be created.

As previously mentioned, I do not recommend turning off system protection unless you know what you are doing and already have another backup solution in place. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment. Enjoy!

So without further ado, here’s how you would get your Recycle Bin icon back in Windows if you deleted it or removed it by accident.

Windows Vista

First, right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize. In the dialog box on the right hand side, there should be an option called Change desktop icons.

On the Change desktop icons dialog box, go ahead and check the Recycle Bin box to add that back to your desktop. You’ll notice that there is a Full Recycle Bin and Empty Recycle Bin icon.

If you click Apply, your icon should now be back on the desktop. However, there may be an issue for some people in which the Recycle Bin continually shows full or empty and does not change depending on if something is added or removed from the trash. It’s almost like Windows Vista gets confused and simply uses one icon instead of switching back and forth.

If you have this problem where the recycle bin icon does not change to reflect “full” and “empty” then you need to first check off Recycle Bin icon like shown above. Then go ahead and left click on the Recycle Bin full icon and click Change Icon. Select the already highlighted icon, which should be the full Recycle Bin icon. Do the same thing with the empty Recycle Bin icon and go ahead and click Apply.

The Recycle Bin icon should now be on your desktop and should automatically update based on whether there is data in the trash or not.

Windows 7 & 8

In Windows 7, the process is slightly different for recovering your recycle bin icon. First, click on Start and then type in desktop icons. Go ahead and click Show or hide common icons on the desktop.

This will bring up the same dialog similar to the one in Windows Vista where you can just check Recycle Bin to bring it back to your desktop. On Windows 8, you click on the pseudo Start button and start just typing desktop icons. The Charms bar will appear on the right with the search results.

This will bring up the exact same dialog as in Windows 7. There’s not much else to getting the recycle bin back, but there are a couple of tricks I’ve learned over time.

Firstly, you can bypass the recycle bin by simply holding down the CTRL key when you delete a file in Windows. You should only use this option when you are completely certain you won’t need to recover a file later on.

Secondly, you can right-click on the recycle bin, choose Properties and configure a couple of options like the size of the recycle bin and whether or not you want to see the delete confirmation dialog. If you have a small hard drive like an SSD, then reducing the size of the recycle bin can save you quite a bit of space.

If you’re having any other trouble restoring your recycle bin icon, feel free to post a comment and we’ll try to help. Enjoy!

Remove Shortcut Icon via Registry

I mention the registry hack first because it’s the quickest and easiest way to get rid of the arrows without having to install any third-party programs. It works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 without any issue. You do have to be a little comfortable using the registry, but it’s really straightforward.

Click on Start and type in regedit in the search box. On Windows 8, go to the Start Screen and starting typing regedit.

Now navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SOFTWARE – Microsoft – Windows – CurrentVersion – Explorer – Shell Icons

Note that you may not have the Shell Icons key under Explorer by default. If it’s not there, right-click on Explorer in the left-hand pane and choose New – Key.

A new key will appear in the left-hand menu and you’ll have to give it a name. Now type in Shell Icons with the capitalization shown in the screenshot above. Then click on Shell Icons in the left pane and you’ll see just a key named Default in the right-hand pane. Right-click on any white area in the right-pane and choose New – String Value.

Change the name to the number 29 and press Enter. Then double-click on the entry to bring up the key editor. In the Value Data field, go ahead and copy and paste the following:

%windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50 

Click OK and close out the registry editor. Now just log off and log back in or restart your computer and the arrows should be gone from your desktop icons if done correctly. This will also work on 32 or 64-bit versions of Windows.

Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor

Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor is a nifty little program is my favorite because it not only works on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 32 or 64-bit versions, but also doesn’t require you to mess around with the registry.

Once you download it, just unzip the files and then navigate to the appropriate directory for your OS and platform. There are 32 and 64-bit versions for Windows 7 & Vista and the same for Windows 8. Once you run the EXE file, you’ll get a simple dialog as shown below where you can choose from one of four options.

The classic arrow is a smaller arrow than the default one and you can also choose a custom image if you want something other than an arrow to show up on the icon. The nice thing about this program is that you don’t even have to log off for it to work. Once you select the radio button, the desktop is automatically updated and you’ll see the arrows have disappeared.

Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover

Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover basically takes the registry hack and wraps it into a small program. This little freeware application is by no means a stunning piece of software with loads of features, etc, but then again it’s usually the simple applications that everyone loves. The only downside is that it only works on 32-bit versions of Windows.

The program is very simple to use and does it’s one job very well. You can either shrink the arrow size for the arrow shortcuts or remove them altogether from your icons. Choose one of the four options from the list and click Apply. You can also check the box at the bottom, which will remove the word “shortcut” when you create new shortcuts on the desktop.

Now go ahead and log off your computer and log back on. Your arrows should either be gone or be reduced in size. I also tried to run this program on Windows XP, but it didn’t allow me to.

If you want to remove the shortcut arrows from Windows XP desktop icons, you’ll need to check out my post on tweaking Windows XP using Tweak UI for XP. You can also tweak many other settings using the Tweak UI program.