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Starting Over with System Restore

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Recently I was trying to set up my new cell phone to work with my home computer. I had some installation problems and was having a hard time trying to un-do some changes that were made to my system. (This had to do with drivers that were installed to support a Bluetooth® connection, which is literally the topic of another story.)

Anyway, I suddenly remembered that Windows XP lets me turn back the clock, so to speak, and restore my system settings to the way they were before I tried installing the new hardware. What a relief! I was able to return the system to how it was before I'd begun the install, and start over (after downloading the drivers I needed to make the installation successful).

System Restore is cool in many ways. One of them is that you don't need to do anything special to have it work. If you're running Windows XP, your system is automatically set up to create a new restore point every day, and every time you make a significant system or application change. You can also create your own restore point any time you like.

It's easy to learn more about System Restore. This article, Windows XP System Restore is easy to use, gives a great overview of the feature.

While it's a great solution for major hardware or software installation malfunctions, System Restore shouldn't be your first step in trying to solve a computer problem. Be sure to go through less drastic troubleshooting steps such as rebooting your computer before resorting to System Restore. Though I've not had problems with losing things during System Restore, in this article, Protecting Files During System Restore, the author points out that files stored on your desktop (rather than in My Documents) may be lost during a system restore. If you tend to save files on your desktop, you may want to move them into your My Documents folder before doing the System Restore.

Speaking of rolling back the clock, if you should decide that restoring your system was a mistake; even that can be reversed, as you can undo a System Restore.

Now if only I could undo all the sweets I ate over the holidays so easily...

—Robbin Young

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 11, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2006
    I DO USE SYSTEM RESTORE WOULD LIKE THE UPDATES ,  
    THANK YOU