WINDOWS XP AND VISTA RESTORE POINT

How to Use the Restore Point in XP and VISTA 

What is System Restore: This feature allows for the rolling back date wise of system files, registry keys, installed programs, if you delete a file or folder by mistake or can track and reverse harmful changes to your computer.

System restore in Windows Vista: Is based on Shadow Copy technology.

Creating a New Restore Point Manually:

In System Restore, you may create a new restore point manually. Method: Go to START >> All programs >> Accessories >> System tools >>system restore. When the page opens it says on the top

“Welcome to System Restore” On this dialogue box

You shall find, on the right side “select the task”

Then there are two buttons.

The Top button says “restore my computer to an earlier time” the lower button says “create a restore point”.

Now if you want to Restore you computer to an earlier time, click the round box beside it and then press the “NEXT” On the next screen you will find two boxes, one with the current month and a restore point with dark blue on certain date.

On the right hand side box there are dates and time of that particular system restore. If you have other dates with dark blue color then if required you can press them and then click “NEXT”. The next page will show you that your system restore point is going to be set on the date which you clicked. The computer then takes some time and then shuts off by itself and then restart, now if you open the system restore dialogue box you shall find the your computer is set to or roll back to an earlier point/date you wanted.

How to Create a System Restore Point or Change the System Restore Configuration. Open the Page of welcome to system restore and click the box on the right side where it says “create a restore point”

Then press next, a page will appear saying “Create a restore point”.

You will find a long box which is titled as “restore system description”. Type the description for previous date and year on which you want your system restore to roll back.

Then press next, the next page shows the detail of earlier date and after a while computer will shut off and restart again. Now all the files, folders, softwares which were there on that day you wrote earlier shall be available.

This thing is possible when your system restore is on and was not made off by you.

YOU CAN NOT KEEP A VERY OLD RESTORE POJNT: Old restore points are discarded in order to keep the volume's usage within the specified amount.

RESULT OF DISABLING SYSTEM RESTORE ENTIRELY. If you are concerned with performance or space usage then you may disable System Restore entirely. Files stored on volumes not monitored by System Restore are never backed up or restored.

 What Essential things are saved in system restore component?

System Restore backs up system files of certain extensions and saves them for later recovery and use. It also backs up the registry and most drivers.

 When the Restore points are created:

1. When Windows Update installs new updates to Windows.

 2. When the user installs a driver that is not digitally signed by Windows Hardware Quality Labs.

 3. When a software is installed using the Windows Installer, Package Installer or other installers. 

 System checkpoint:  Every 24 hours of computer use or every 24 hours of calendar time.

*This setting is configurable through the registry or using the deployment tools. Such a restore point is known as a system checkpoint.

*System checkpoints are only created if the system is idle for a certain amount of time or for more than 24 hours.

On Windows Vista when the user requests it.  Shadow copies created during File Backup and Complete PC Backup can also be used as restore points.

AUTO DELETION: Older restore points are deleted to save the space.

Differences between how System Restore works under Windows XP and Windows Vista.

 In Windows XP, System Restore can be configured to use up to a maximum of 12% of the volume's space.

 In Windows Vista, System Restore is designed for larger volumes and you can not enable system restore on volumes smaller than 1 GB.

By default, it uses 15% of the volume's space.  

Remember that you can use the system restore point features if it has not been off for a while.

Once you off it manually, all the restore points are gone.

Situation where you have to off the System Restore Point:  If you are using an Antivirus or similar program to clean the computer then you have off the system restore point or else after removal of virus the system will back it up and it shall never be deleted.