Uh-oh. You installed a new device, driver, or program,
and now your PC is running poorly. You’ve tried various
fixes, such as Add Or Remove Programs or Device Driver
Rollback in Windows XP, but you’ve still come to a dead-end.
It’s time to turn around and use a tool that Microsoft
introduced when it released Windows Me: System Restore.
System Restore lets you restore your computer to a previous
state that is, a state that existed before you began encountering
your current problem.Run into trouble, and you can revert to an
earlier state without losing personal files (recent or otherwise),
including word-processing documents, email messages, and
bookmarked Web pages. As you use your PC, Windows monitors
changes to your system and application- related files and regularly
creates what it refers to as restore points. Todo this, it monitors
all partitions and drives, as well as driver and application
installations. During every 24 hours (inWinXP) or 10 hours
(in WinMe) of computer use or 24 hours of calendar time,
System Restore automatically creates a restore point, even
if you haven’t made any system changes. For example,
if you shut down your computer and don’t turn it on for
three days, System Restore will create a restore
point the next time you boot up.
In addition, each time you install a program from a CD or other
media, the tool creates a restore point.This also occurs when
you install an app via downloaded software. So, even if you’re
using WinXP’s Automatic Updates feature, System Restore will
create a restore point once the updates begin the installation
process. Plus, you can create your own restore points using the
System Restore Wizard. Over time, you can see that the
number of restore points could add up, especially if you use
your PC frequently.
Rather than eat up hard drive space, System Restore stores
only between one to three weeks of restore points.
How far back you can go to a restore point depends on
three factors:
how much you use your PC, how large your hard drive is,
and how much drive space your PC has allotted to store
System Restore data. As System Restore reaches its limits
on creating restore points, the tool drops the earlier restore
points. Thus, if you plan to use System Restore, you’ll
need to do so relatively quickly after you notice a problem.
(NOTE: If your Windows drive has
fewer than 200MB of free space, WinMe
and WinXP will disable System Restore
by default.)
As you use System Restore, the wizard walks you
through selecting a restore point on its calendar.
Simply select a date, and the tool restores your
PC to that earlier time period, with one major
exception: System Restore doesn’t touch your
My Documents folder, and it doesn’t alter any
files that use such common file extensions as
.DOC or .XLS.
A Few Caveats
Although it’s a useful tool, System
Restore is far from being a complete
solution. Because System Restore is
limited to a maximum 12% of hard
drive space, it may purge useful restore
points before you have a chance to use
them. In addition, it will often render
programs useless if they were installed
after the restore point; so even though
the programs’ data files aren’t deleted,
you may need to uninstall and reinstall
any such programs to make it possible
to access these data files. Because of
this, we recommend that you run Add
Or Remove Programs to take care of
potential problems before you use
System Restore.
And, perhaps most importantly,
System Restore isn’t a true backup
system. Yes, it can back up copies of the
Registry, but that doesn’t mean you
can count on it to back up other things.
For instance, it won’t serve as a backup
for earlier versions of Microsoft
Word files you accidentally edited or
changed. System Restore works best
when it’s part of a complete restoration
system, along with a dedicated backup
application and such Windows tools as
Add Or Remove Programs. By using a
combination of these tools, you can get
your system up and running again
much more quickly.
BY HEIDI V. ANDERSON
