Firstly there may be a way to do it in windows 7/8.1 but I haven't used native windows backup for 10 year or more
In my experience windows restore points by and large don't. Especially when you really need them; perhaps they were designed by bankers...

I use third party: 'Acronis True Image' - this is not a free program, and there is a learning curve - free image programs exist, the only one I would refer anyone to is 'easeus todo backup free' which you can google

I understand that you can do it in Norton, but I have never used that program for such things either, or to be honest anything other than when helping others who were stuck using it because 'it came with the computer' [hummmm.... thinks]

anyhow pretty siimple principle - you get the OS build up and running and activated and then you make a 'full' image of the partition, so that you can restore it to that percise point if the OS gets screwed by reinstalling the complete partition - because it replaces everything on your partition you loose eveything that is there when you overwrite, which is therefore of no use whatsoever for data backup - but it saves a lot of time for a clean install - you can of course use these programs for data backup, but that's a separate routine

if like me you run at least one computer 'out in the wild' for one reason or another then it becomes a matter of routine to go back to the image to reset the test-bed OS