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Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

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ares09x:
I've had a few different experiences with System Restore on XP:


* I had a laptop that was plugged in, but not turned on, and apparently a power surge did something to the registry or one of the system files, and it would not boot into XP.  Trying to boot into the "last known good" configuration didn't help.  I was able to get into safemode and use System Restore to go back to the last time that the system worked OK (it's set up to do a System Restore point every night), and everything worked great.  :Thmbsup:

* Other times, on a different PC, I've tried to go back to an earlier restore point, only to have System Restore tell me that it could not successfully go back to that point (after trying and even going through the required system reboot)!  That was definitely discouraging.  Sometimes it works on that PC, other times it doesn't, and I don't know why.  :huh:

Regarding registry cleaning, I have Norton SystemWorks, which I have set up to periodically analyze my registry, and it always finds things to clean up; something annoying that it will sometimes do is to remove shortcuts from my desktop, even though they worked fine before - it happens randomly, both which shortcuts are affected, and how often any are removed.  It seems to do this to "older" shortcuts, or those not used very frequently, because I usually can't remember what the shortcut was that it removed (otherwise I could just put it back).  >:(

Oh, well, the wonders of XP ...

wreckedcarzz:
System restore on Windows XP quite frankly sucks... I have had it work, but about...10-15% of the time. As far as I can tell, for some reason it seems to depend on the install (if you install XP and it won't restore right, and 6 months later you reinstall it may work again... :huh:). I have done it on Vista and it is a lot better, but it takes FOREVER... >:(


And also...
* Don't bother with registry cleaners (esp. in automatic mode) they always cause more problems than they solve. Automatic registry cleaning absolutely WILL hose your system - even on a clean install of windows...
-Carol Haynes (July 29, 2007, 03:04 PM)
--- End quote ---

I have tried and used several (at least 5 off the top of my head) registry cleaners with no problems at all. Strange.

mwang:
In XP I tried it a few times before buying a disk imaging tool. Didn't work as I expected (returning the whole system partition--or the boot partition as MS calls it--to the exact state when the Restore Point was set). It would leave some things unchanged. It's by design (according to Help) but I didn't like it.

In Vista the ability of System Restore has been expanded. By utilizing volume shadow copy it could now restore individual files to a previous version (see the Previous Versions tab in a file's properties). I thought it's great, so I turned on System Restore for my data partitions (I still use an imager for the system partition). Ended up turning it off again a few days ago, for I never could find a previous version of any file, even files I change daily (my system setup diary, e.g.). The System Restore setting dialog suggested it did take snapshots of the designated partitions, and I even took some manual snapshots, but still couldn't get it working. I gave up for I didn't have time to investigate it further.

Carol Haynes:
* Don't bother with registry cleaners (esp. in automatic mode) they always cause more problems than they solve. Automatic registry cleaning absolutely WILL hose your system - even on a clean install of windows...
-Carol Haynes (July 29, 2007, 03:04 PM)
--- End quote ---

I have tried and used several (at least 5 off the top of my head) registry cleaners with no problems at all. Strange.
-wreckedcarzz (August 11, 2007, 07:40 PM)
--- End quote ---

Very strange indeed - I would suggest that you haven't noticed problems ... yet. The biggest problem with registry cleaners is that unless you manually check every change that will be made (in most cases impossible because you will find hundreds on a freshly installed version of Windows) you will be changing intentional behaviour - especially in the case of Windows itself and MS Office if you use it. MS set the rules for use of the registry but break them all the time - if nothing else they install hooks in the registry when you install their software that allows their programs to use extensions and addons. Normally they are empty registry values but if you delete them (and all registry cleaners will flag them as pointless registry values unless they are explicitly excluded) and consequently you lose the ability to install those extensions. That is a simple example.

Othere examples of where automatic registry cleaning doesn't work are things like file assoications can get screwed up, you lose intentional blank values (where the existence of registry key alone acts as a flag to the software that installed it).

The biggest problem is that most consequences of registry cleaning are not immediately obvious - you only find out weeks or  months later and then blame something else for the problem.

biox:
I've given up on system restore and disabled it (XP).
Like others I've tried a few registry cleaners and some of them messed things up quite nicely. However, system restore didn't bring anything, or much, back. I've since used the "R" install and it works like a charm. Takes much longer but isn't like the old re-install that put another million user accounts plus settings on the disk.

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