CCleaner not showing system restore points

[Whard42]

Hi all,

Just found out my problem, I had WMI disabled in Windows services after enabling this service everything is now working fine.

Regards,

Pete.

Thanks... That was my problem.

[Andavari]

Just by reading the Windows Management Instrumentation ("WMI") description it doesn't look like something that should ever be turned off or messed with due to other stuff failing to function without it. On old XP here it starts automatically.

[tgt]

I am on Windows 10 Anniversary, and have the same problem as OP had, i.e. CCleaner does not show restore points, but Windows System Restore does. The solution of Andavari of turning off System Restore applied to XP, but how to do that in Win 10?

[ArchAngle]

I know this is an old thread but this is still relevant as I'm using CCleaner v4.19 on a Win XP virtual machine. This version of CCleaner displays better on XP than other more recent versions.

Anyway, one thing I've noticed about this, actually XPMode installation, is that it does not automatically delete system restore points. At one stage I had at least twenty shown by CCleaner despite the System Restore volume being set to 3% which is just under 3000MB. I normally use CCleaner to trim the list but I had not done this recently.

So today I go to do just that and I'm surprised to see no restore points listed by CCleaner. Windows System > System Restore however is showing restore going back to early November, probably more than twenty as I create at least one manual restore point a week. Add to that Windows own restore points plus a couple of program updates/uninstaller programs which create restore points of their own and its easy to have that many.

First thing I did was restart the VM, no joy. I then decide to delete CCleaner using Revo Uninstaller (which itself creates a restore point as a safety net) and reinstalled the same CCleaner version from a fresh download. No joy. Same thing with a portable CCleaner more up to date version.

Tried starting in Safe mode and using one of the restore points (from two weeks ago) - all worked fine but CCleaner still not showing any restore points.

That's when I came here and found this thread. I left the WMI as a last resort and as I'd actually already thought about switching System Restore off and on again but thought it almost too simple (cliched?) to work reluctantly tried that.

Cleared all the existing restore points, restarted the VM and voila it worked. CCleaner now displaying the first system created restore point and a test one I did just to confirm. I've restarted the VM twice as well and rechecked and all is still good.

The question remains what caused this and the other instances detailed in this thread? It is not a OS setting matter; I've run SFC and CHKDSK and all is fine. I've not changed anything in my VM settings either.  The WMI setting or registry corruption seem highly unlikely. But I'd not changed CCleaner's settings either and yet now its back working as before. Restore point or restore point ID corruption perhaps - the latter seems the more likely as I proved that System Restore itself was working perfectly.

Does CCleaner have some unreported maximum number of restore points it will display or something like that?  I noticed that when the blank page first appears there is an indication something is trying to load then gives up or 'thinks' its finished.

Still if there is no explanation I'll know what to do if it happens again. So thanks to the previous posters, particularly those who suggested temporarily disabling System Restore.     

           

[Andavari]

It's caused by corruption in one or more of your System Restore Points when CCleaner no longer displays them and it's a heads up that you have an issue (in fact the only heads up you'll get because you could try to use a restore point to fix something and it could fail), there's an old topic solution about it here:
https://forum.piriform.com/topic/44795-solution-when-ccleaner-doesnt-show-system-restore-points-windows/

On my old WinXP desktop that I still use irregularly I've disabled System Restore, in my opinion it can never be trusted to actually fix something due to the possibility of a corrupt restore point, and from my experience when it seems to work it can create more issues. What I do is keep recent disk image backups I make with Macrium Reflect Free Edition since those I know have fixed 100% of any issue (any good disk imaging program such work), and then I have a discontinued tool ERUNT to make an automatic daily whole registry backup - although there's a current much newer freeware tool that can also be used called Tweaking.com Registry Backup.

[ArchAngle]

So it is an indication of restore point corruption then. Thanks for the info.

Interesting because it must just be a very specific one; as I said, I used a restore point as part of my attempt to correct the CCleaner display problem and whilst it worked perfectly it did not fix the problem.

My experience with using System Restore is very different. Nine times out of ten when I used it, on my old, now dead, XP laptop and the handful of times I've used it on my current system its worked fine too and usually helped fix the trouble. Although I will admit that once it didn't help at all and I had a few cases on the laptop when it reported it could not roll back certain programs so it could not use the restore point. Once or twice I had to reinstall my browser or some other program afterwards but that's about it.

I do create backup disk images using Easeus Todo fairly regularly and also make manual registry backups too. But System Restore is still my first go to. It is so quick to create a restore point manually before uninstalling anything or installing a new program and if you're using a SSD it barely takes longer to do than reboot. I think of it as a first level safety net.

Restoring from a disk image, which will necessarily be older and, in my case, is on an external HDD drive which is not normally attached and currently not even installed in the external housing, is a bit of a palaver. I'm glad to say I've never had to do it for real.      

[Andavari]

If you're using a hard disk and a 3rd party customizable defrag software that allows you to input exclusions, one tip is to exclude the whole C:\System Volume Information folder in the defrag software. Allowing 3rd party defrag tools to defragment files in there "may cause issues such as restore points failing."

[ArchAngle]

As is always recommended I never use a defrag program on a SSD. 

Piriform's Defraggler does have a SSD optimised TRIM function:-

https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/defraggler/technical-information/defraggler-and-ssds

but even though I do use Defraggler on my HDDs (and get apparently useful results from it) I still wouldn't use that on the SSD and particularly one where the TRIM function is confirmed as in operation. 

https://www.systoolsgroup.com/how-to/disable-enable-ssd-trim-function-windows/