System restore points before changes

Before anything that touches a driver or performs a deep system cleanup, BRUTAL Optimizer asks Windows to create a system restore point. It's a safety net: if a new driver or a system change ever causes a problem, you can roll Windows back to exactly how it was beforehand.

What a restore point is

A system restore point is a snapshot of Windows' system files, drivers, and registry at a moment in time — a feature built into Windows itself. Restoring to one undoes system-level changes made since the snapshot. It does not touch your personal files (documents, photos, game saves), so it's safe to use without losing your data.

When BRUTAL creates one for you

Before installing any driver — every driver install (Windows Update or Microsoft Update Catalog) creates a restore point first whenever Windows allows one. You'll see “Creating system restore point…” in the log before the download starts.
Before deep Windows cleanup (DISM component-store cleanup) in the Disk Cleaner, which is a non-trivial servicing operation.

The restore point is created with Windows' device-driver install point type and a clear description such as “BRUTAL Optimizer — Before Driver Update”, so it's easy to recognize in the restore list. To avoid clutter, the app throttles itself to roughly one restore point per session.

Restore points are a different, complementary safety net to BRUTAL's own per-module undo. Optimization modules capture their own before-state and have dedicated undo buttons; restore points cover the system-level driver and servicing changes that aren't a simple registry revert.

If restore point creation fails

Creating a restore point depends on System Protection being enabled for your system drive in Windows. If it's turned off (or there's no room in the restore allocation), the app logs “Could not create restore point — proceeding with caution” and continues, because the driver install itself is still legitimate. If you want the safety net, enable it first.

How to enable System Protection

Press Start and search for “Create a restore point”, then open it.
In System Protection, select your system drive (usually C:) and click Configure.
Choose Turn on system protection, give it some disk space (a few percent is plenty), and click OK.

How to roll back to a restore point

Press Start, search for “Create a restore point”, and open it.
Click System Restore…, then Next.
Pick the BRUTAL-labeled restore point (matching the date/time of your change) and follow the wizard. Windows restarts to complete the rollback.

Best practice

Leave System Protection on for your system drive so the safety net is always available before driver changes.
Let the “Creating system restore point…” step finish — don't cancel it.
If a driver update causes display, network, or audio problems after a reboot, a System Restore to the just-created point is the cleanest way back. For driver-specific rollbacks you can also use the per-driver backup/restore tools on the Driver Updates page — see Updating drivers.

Common issues / troubleshooting

“Could not create restore point” in the log. System Protection is off or out of space. Enable it (steps above) and re-run the install to get the safety net.
No BRUTAL restore point in the list. If protection was off when you installed, no point was created. Going forward, enable protection so the next install snapshots first.
Only one restore point per session. That's intentional — the app throttles to avoid filling your restore allocation with duplicate points during a single run.