Manage-RestorePoints.ps1

Comprehensive Windows System Restore Point management script with automated creation, monitoring, email notifications, and logging.

Features

• ✅ Automated Configuration - Enables and configures System Restore with customizable disk space allocation (8-10%)
• ✅ Configurable Creation Frequency - Sets Windows registry to allow restore points every 2 hours (default) instead of 24 hours
• ✅ Automatic Scheduled Task Creation - Creates Windows Scheduled Task automatically during configuration
• ✅ Initial Restore Point - Creates an initial restore point immediately after configuration
• ✅ Scheduled Creation - Creates restore points automatically on a configurable schedule (default: daily)
• ✅ Intelligent Maintenance - Maintains a minimum number of restore points (default: 10)
• ✅ Email Notifications - Sends notifications when restore points are created, deleted, or applied
• ✅ Comprehensive Logging - Logs all activities to centralized markdown log files (C:\mytech.today\logs\)
• ✅ Error Handling - Robust error handling with fallback mechanisms
• ✅ Task Status Monitoring - View scheduled task status with -Action List
• ✅ Scriptable - Can be triggered by other scripts for automated workflows

Requirements

• PowerShell: 5.1 or later
• Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016/2019/2022
• Privileges: Administrator rights required
• Modules: No external modules required (uses built-in cmdlets)

Installation

1. Clone or download the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mytech-today-now/PowerShellScripts.git
cd PowerShellScripts/RestorePoints

2. Review and customize the configuration file:

notepad config.json

3. Run the script with administrator privileges to configure System Restore:

.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Configure

This will:

• Enable System Restore on the system drive
• Configure disk space allocation (default: 10%)
• Create an initial restore point
• Set up a Windows Scheduled Task for automatic monitoring (runs daily by default)
• Send email notification (if configured)

Configuration

The script uses a JSON configuration file (config.json) with the following structure:

{
  "RestorePoint": {
    "DiskSpacePercent": 10,
    "MinimumCount": 10,
    "MaximumCount": 20,
    "CreateOnSchedule": true,
    "ScheduleIntervalMinutes": 1440
  },
  "Email": {
    "Enabled": false,
    "SmtpServer": "smtp.example.com",
    "SmtpPort": 587,
    "UseSsl": true,
    "From": "restorepoint@example.com",
    "To": ["admin@example.com"],
    "Username": "",
    "PasswordEncrypted": ""
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogPath": "Logs\\RestorePoint.log",
    "MaxLogSizeMB": 10,
    "RetentionDays": 30
  }
}

Configuration Options

RestorePoint Settings

• DiskSpacePercent (8-100): Percentage of disk space allocated for restore points
• MinimumCount (1-100): Minimum number of restore points to maintain
• MaximumCount (1-100): Maximum number of restore points before cleanup
• CreateOnSchedule (true/false): Enable automatic restore point creation
• ScheduleIntervalMinutes (1-43200): Interval between automatic restore points (in minutes)
• CreationFrequencyMinutes (1-1440): Minimum time interval (in minutes) between restore point creation. Default Windows value is 1440 (24 hours). Recommended: 120 (2 hours) for more frequent protection

Email Settings

• Enabled (true/false): Enable email notifications
• SmtpServer: SMTP server address
• SmtpPort: SMTP server port (typically 587 for TLS, 25 for non-TLS)
• UseSsl (true/false): Use SSL/TLS encryption
• From: Sender email address
• To: Array of recipient email addresses
• Username: SMTP authentication username (optional)
• PasswordEncrypted: Encrypted password (use ConvertFrom-SecureString)

Logging Settings

Note: This script follows myTech.Today standards and logs to C:\mytech.today\logs\ regardless of the config.json LogPath setting. Logs are written in markdown format with monthly rotation.

• LogPath: (Deprecated - logs now written to C:\mytech.today\logs\Manage-RestorePoints-yyyy-MM.md)
• MaxLogSizeMB: Maximum log file size before archiving
• RetentionDays: Number of days to retain archived logs

Log File Location:

• All logs are written to: C:\mytech.today\logs\
• Log file name format: Manage-RestorePoints-yyyy-MM.md (e.g., Manage-RestorePoints-2025-10.md)
• Logs are in markdown table format with icons (ℹ️ INFO, ⚠️ WARNING, ❌ ERROR, ✅ SUCCESS)
• Monthly rotation - one file per month
• Logs are never overwritten, always appended

Encrypting Email Password

To encrypt your email password for the configuration file:

# Create encrypted password
$password = Read-Host "Enter SMTP password" -AsSecureString
$encryptedPassword = ConvertFrom-SecureString $password

# Update config.json with the encrypted password
$config = Get-Content config.json | ConvertFrom-Json
$config.Email.PasswordEncrypted = $encryptedPassword
$config | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | Set-Content config.json

Usage

Command-Line Parameters

.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 [-Action <String>] [-ConfigPath <String>] [-Description <String>] [-Force]

Parameters

• Action (Configure | Create | List | Cleanup | Monitor)

  • Configure: Configures System Restore settings
  • Create: Creates a new restore point
  • List: Lists all available restore points
  • Cleanup: Performs cleanup of old restore points
  • Monitor: Monitors and maintains restore points (default)

• ConfigPath (optional): Path to custom configuration file

• Description (optional): Description for the restore point (used with -Action Create)

• Force (optional): Force creation even if a recent restore point exists

Examples

Configure System Restore

# Configure System Restore with default settings
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Configure

# Configure with custom config file
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Configure -ConfigPath "C:\Config\custom-config.json"

Create Restore Point

# Create restore point with default description
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Create

# Create restore point with custom description
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Create -Description "Pre-Windows Update"

# Force creation even if recent restore point exists
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Create -Description "Critical Backup" -Force

List Restore Points

# List all available restore points
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action List

Cleanup Old Restore Points

# Manually trigger cleanup
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Cleanup

Monitor and Maintain

# Run monitoring (creates restore points on schedule, performs cleanup)
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Monitor

# This is the default action, so you can also just run:
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1

Scheduled Task

Automatic Setup (Recommended)

The script automatically creates a Windows Scheduled Task when you run:

.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action Configure

This creates a scheduled task at:

• Task Path: \myTech.Today\
• Task Name: System Restore Point - Daily Monitoring
• Schedule: Configurable via ScheduleIntervalMinutes in config.json (default: daily at midnight)
• Runs As: SYSTEM account with highest privileges
• Action: Executes the script with -Action Monitor

Note: All myTech.Today scripts create scheduled tasks in the \myTech.Today\ folder for easy management.

View Scheduled Task Status

# View task status along with restore points
.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 -Action List

This displays:

• Task state (Ready, Running, Disabled)
• Last run time and result
• Next scheduled run time
• Trigger details

Manual Setup (Advanced)

If you need to manually create a scheduled task with custom settings:

# Create scheduled task with custom interval (e.g., every 6 hours)
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute 'PowerShell.exe' `
    -Argument '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Path\To\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1" -Action Monitor'

$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Once -At (Get-Date) -RepetitionInterval (New-TimeSpan -Hours 6) -RepetitionDuration ([TimeSpan]::MaxValue)

$principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserId "SYSTEM" -LogonType ServiceAccount -RunLevel Highest

$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettings -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries -StartWhenAvailable

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Custom Restore Point Task" `
    -TaskPath "\MyTasks\" `
    -Action $action `
    -Trigger $trigger `
    -Principal $principal `
    -Settings $settings `
    -Description "Custom System Restore Point management"

Using Task Scheduler GUI

1. Open Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc)
2. Create Basic Task
3. Name: "Manage Restore Points"
4. Trigger: Daily (or your preferred schedule)
5. Action: Start a program
   • Program: PowerShell.exe
   • Arguments: -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Path\To\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1" -Action Monitor
6. Check "Run with highest privileges"

Integration with Other Scripts

You can call this script from other automation scripts:

# Example: Create restore point before software installation
& "C:\Scripts\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1" -Action Create -Description "Pre-Software Install" -Force

# Install software
Install-Software.ps1

# Verify installation
if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "Installation successful"
} else {
    Write-Host "Installation failed - restore point available for rollback"
}

Logging

All script activities are logged to the file specified in the configuration. Log entries include:

• Timestamp
• Log level (INFO, WARNING, ERROR, SUCCESS)
• Detailed message

Example log output:

[2025-01-15 10:30:00] [INFO] === Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 v1.0.0 Started ===
[2025-01-15 10:30:00] [INFO] Action: Monitor
[2025-01-15 10:30:01] [INFO] Configuration loaded from config.json
[2025-01-15 10:30:01] [INFO] Starting restore point monitoring
[2025-01-15 10:30:02] [INFO] Current restore point count: 8 (Minimum: 10)
[2025-01-15 10:30:02] [WARNING] No restore points exist. Creating initial restore point.
[2025-01-15 10:30:05] [SUCCESS] Restore point created successfully: Scheduled Restore Point - 2025-01-15 10:30:02
[2025-01-15 10:30:05] [INFO] === Manage-RestorePoints.ps1 Completed ===

Email Notifications

When email notifications are enabled, the script sends HTML-formatted emails for the following events:

Restore Point Created

• Subject: "Restore Point Created - [COMPUTERNAME]"
• Includes: Computer name, date/time, description, status

Restore Point Deleted

• Subject: "Restore Point Deleted - [COMPUTERNAME]"
• Includes: Computer name, date/time, description, creation date, reason

Configuration Changed

• Subject: "System Restore Configured - [COMPUTERNAME]"
• Includes: Computer name, date/time, disk space allocated, status

Troubleshooting

Script requires administrator privileges

Error: "This script requires administrator privileges"

Solution: Run PowerShell as Administrator or run the script with elevated privileges

System Restore is disabled

Error: "System Restore is not enabled"

Solution: Run with -Action Configure to enable and configure System Restore

Cannot create restore point (24-hour limit)

Error: "A restore point was created X hours ago"

Solution: Use the -Force parameter to override the 24-hour Windows limitation

Email notifications not working

Error: "Failed to send email notification"

Solutions:

• Verify SMTP server settings in config.json
• Check firewall rules for SMTP port
• Verify credentials (username/password)
• Test SMTP connectivity: Test-NetConnection -ComputerName smtp.server.com -Port 587

Log file not created

Error: Log file path not accessible

Solution: Ensure the log directory exists and the script has write permissions

Testing

The script includes comprehensive Pester tests for quality assurance.

Running Tests

# Install Pester if not already installed
Install-Module -Name Pester -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

# Run tests
Invoke-Pester -Path .\Tests\Manage-RestorePoints.Tests.ps1

# Run tests with code coverage
$config = New-PesterConfiguration
$config.Run.Path = '.\Tests\Manage-RestorePoints.Tests.ps1'
$config.CodeCoverage.Enabled = $true
$config.CodeCoverage.Path = '.\Manage-RestorePoints.ps1'
Invoke-Pester -Configuration $config

Version History

1.0.0 (2025-01-15)

• Initial release
• System Restore configuration
• Automated restore point creation
• Email notifications
• Comprehensive logging
• Scheduled task support
• Error handling and fallback mechanisms

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Write tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

License

See LICENSE file in the repository root.

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions:

• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/mytech-today-now/PowerShellScripts/issues
• Documentation: See .augment/ folder for development guidelines

Author

PowerShell Scripts Project https://github.com/mytech-today-now/PowerShellScripts