System Restore is a feature built into Windows that periodically creates “restore points” or backups of system files and/or user files so that the system can be. The new Refresh and Reset programs in Windows 8 work wonders in resuscitating an ailing computer, and they’re more powerful than the older System Restore technology. Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, and 7 Restore. All Microsoft Windows computers have recovery or System Restore centers (rstrui.exe) and Windows 8 also has refresh and.Windows XP System Restore Guide. Table of Contents. Introduction. System Restore. Disabling System Restore. Enabling System Restore. Manually Creating Restore Points. ![]() Restoring Windows XP to a previous State. Delete Restore Points. Problems with System Restore. Advanced Usage. Conclusion. Introduction. With new programs being installed, viruses infecting, and spyware lurking in your browsers it is not uncommon for your computer to suddenly stop behaving correctly. In fact, it is almost guaranteed that at some point your computer will just not do what you expect it to. This is not because your a lousy computer user or even a bad person, this is just the life as we know it when working with computers.
Luckily for us, Microsoft bundles an application called System Restore into it's operating system to help alleviate this problem. This article will cover what System Restore is, how it works, and how you can use it to protect your computer. System Restore. System Restore is a feature of Windows XP that allows you to restore your computer to a previous known working state in the event of a problem. This is done without loss of personal files or data such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, music, images, etc. This feature is enabled by default and runs in the background making backups after certain events happen on your computer. System restore functions are only available to an administrator of the computer, therefore if you are not an administrator, you will not be able to follow this tutorial. These backups are known as restore points. These restore points are created before certain events take place in order to give you a recourse in case something bad happens during that event. These events are as follows. If you install a new application and that application's installation program is compliant with the System Restore API, which most are these days, then a new restore point will be created. This restore point will only be made if the system is in an idle state. The following are some of the settings and files that are saved in a Restore Point. Registry (Contains Configuration information for application, user, and operating system settings). Windows File Protection files in the dllscache folder. This is done so that you do not by accident restore an old password and then lock yourself out of the computer. This amount can be adjusted per partition in the System Restore tab in your System control panel. If you have less than 2. MB, system restore will be disabled until the amount of available space rises above 2. MB. If system restore attempts to make a new restore point, and that restore point would put you past the allocated amount of storage that system restore can use, system restore will delete the oldest restore point automatically to create more room for the new one. Disabling System Restore. NOTE: You need to be logged in as an Administrator to administer System Restore. If you are not logged in as an administrator you will not be able to follow these steps. WARNING: By disabling system restore you will delete all stored restore points. If you are in the control panel and do not see the System icon, click on the link that says . Now you should be able to see the System icon. After you double click on it you should then click on the System Restore tab. If system restore is enabled you will see an image like Figure 1 below. Figure 1: Disabling System Restore. If you see in the Status section, designated by the green box, that it is Turned off , then system restore is already disabled and you do not have to do anything further. If it is showing that it is monitoring as seen in Figure 1 above, then you should check the checkbox labeled . You should then click on the Apply button to disable system restore. Enabling System Restore. NOTE: You need to be logged in as an Administrator to administer System Restore. If you are not logged in as an administrator you will not be able to follow these steps. If you are in the control panel and do not see the System icon, then click on the link that says . Now you should be able to see the System icon. After you double click on it you should then click on the System Restore tab. If system restore is turned off you will see an image like Figure 2 below. Figure 2. Enabling System Restore. If you see in the Status section, designated by the green box, that it is Monitoring a partition, then system restore is already enabled and you do not have to do anything further. If it is showing that it is turned off as seen in Figure 2 above, then you should uncheck the checkbox labeled . Since you are turning system restore back on, a new restore point will automatically be made. After the new restore point is made, you should see in the status section that system restore is monitoring the partition; which means it is enabled. Manually Creating Restore Points. It is possible to manually make restore points when you wish by using the System Restore utility. Common reasons to do this are because you feel have your computer set up perfectly and would like to save that state in case something goes wrong in the future. Then click on the System Restore icon. You will be presented with a screen similar to Figure 3 below. Figure 3. System Restore Utility. To create a manual restore point select the radio dial labeled . You will then be presented with a screen similar to Figure 4 below. Figure 4. Name your Restore Point. At this point you should type the name you would like this restore point to be referred as in the field designated by the red box. The current date and time will automatically be appended to the name you choose. When you are done, press the Create button designated by the blue box. System restore will create the restore point and give you a confirmation screen with information like Figure 5 below. Figure 5. Manual Restore Point Created. At this point you can press the Close button to close the System Restore utility. Restoring Windows XP to a previous State. To restore Windows XP to a previous restore point you need to open the System Restore Utility. To open the utility, go to your System Tools group under Accessories in your Programs menu. Then click on the System Restore icon. You will be presented with a screen similar to Figure 3 above. When that is selected press the Next button. You will then be presented with a screen similar to Figure 6 below. Figure 6. Select a Restore Point. At this point you should select a restore point that you would like to restore. If a particular day has any restore points created on it the date will be in bold. You can then select the restore point by clicking once on its name, as designated by the red box in Figure 6 and then pressing the Next button. If you do want to continue, you should press the Next button again, otherwise press cancel. System restore will then shut down all open applications and reboot the computer. Restoration Complete If there are any problems with your computer since you restored to this restore point, you can revert back to your previous settings by going back into the System Restore Utility and selecting the . Undo your last Restoration. Deleting Restore Points. There are three known safe ways to delete restore points stored on your computer. These ways are described below: Disk Cleanup - Launch the Disk Cleanup tool and then select the more options tab. On this tab you will find a section for System Restore. If you press the Clean Up button for that section, Windows will delete all restore points except for the most recent one. Turn off System Restore - Just by turning off System Restore all your restore points will be deleted. Unless you want this to happen, be careful that you don't mistakenly delete all your restore points by disabling system restore. System Restore runs out of storage space - If system restore runs out of the storage space that has been allocated towards its use, it will delete the oldest restore point in order to create space for the new restore point. Problems with System Restore. There are some problems associated with System Restore when it comes to viruses. When restore points are created they are stored in a directory that is accessible only to the System account and not to a user. This keeps the restore points safe from misuse and tampering. Unfortunately this also means that any virus scan software you may have installed can not scan the files located there as well. This causes a problem if a file that is infected with a virus gets backed up into a restore point because now the anti- virus software can not clean it. Now if you ever restore from a restore point, that file that is infected will be introduced back into your system. This will guarantee that their are no infected files that could be restored. Advanced Info. WARNING: Information found in this section is for advanced users only. If you use this information without advanced knowledge of your operating system you can cause serious damage to your Windows installation. This folder is used to store copies of your registry, files, configs, etc. The system volume information folder is only accessible to the System account by default. You can access this folder, though, by adding yourself to the security permissions of this account. Though its advised that you do not do so, I am sure that some of you will poke around in there anyway. Remember, doing this is at your own risk. By changing the value, which is the total seconds between automatic restore point creation, you can make Windows create restore points more often or less frequent. The default value is 8. Any files listed in this way will not be added to a restore point when one is created. If you use this feature you will be guaranteed to have a valid restore point to revert to if any issues arise in the future. Care must be taken, though, when using this application so that damaged or infected files are not restored to your computer and cause you to be reinfected. With caution in mind when using System Restore you should not have these problems. System Restore Manager: Manage Windows Restore Points. System Restore Manager is a freeware portable utility which allows you to completely manage your Windows system restore points and customize its options. UPDATE 1. 8. 0. 2. System Restore Manager v. Change loghere. Using System Restore Manager, you can: Create a Restore Point on the fly, by clicking the Create Button. Restore your Windows PC to a prior restore point. Just select a Restore Point from the list and click the Restore Button. This will Restart your computer and launch the Restore Process. See all the available restore points. Selectively remove Restore Points you don’t want and save the one’s you want. Just select a Restore Point from the list and click the Delete Button. Select a Drive and change the maximum amount of disk space to use, System Restore can use. On Windows 7, the default is 5% of available disk space. Change the System Restore Point Creation Interval. On Windows 7, the default is 2. Hours. Change the Restore Point Time to Live. The default is 9. Windows 7. System Restore Manager has been developed by me for the Windows Club and has been tested on Windows 7. The donations go to the developer and no part of this donation will come to The Windows Club. These links may also interest you.
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