Restore points as a solution to all problems

[Guest Eric Anderson]

Questions:

 

1. I just found that I only have restore points back to the first week

of August, but my computer was received in late June and I have been

installing things right along. There is a checkbox that says to check

it to get restore points older than 5 days, but that only displays a

few more restore points.

How do I get it to save restore points older than a few weeks.

 

2. Is there a way to edit the registry or have it "repaired" for

standard Microsoft features that does not require reverting to an

older version and losing EVERYTHING you have done as far as installs?

 

Background:

Several things do not work as they should and the solution is always

to go back to a restore point where they did. Three problems with

that. 1. I don't have a restore point where it worked (see above). 2.

I have installed a lot of things that i don't want to reinstall just

to get a minor thing working again. (I would have to do that,

correct?) 3. I did not know that a feature was not working until just

now. For example, I just found that the Windows Management

Instrumentation (WMI) is not working in the windows sharing area. It

recommends....you guessed it..... to revert back a restore point where

it did work. I have no idea when that was (probably upon receipt of

the computer). I am NOT going to go back there to get functionality of

something I have not used yet with the loss of the functionality of

everything I have installed. There are other irritating things that

are also not working properly. For example, the Security Center

service cannot be started. It does not appear to keep the security

components from working, but I can't "turn it on". I assume that there

is a corruption of something in the registery. It would sure be nice

if there was a Microsoft utility that check standard Microsoft

registry entries for integrity and fixed those.

[Guest Bill in Co.]

Re: Restore points as a solution to all problems

 

There is a settings option in System Restore for how much space to allow for

the system restore points. System Restore points vary somewhat in size,

but I've found them to be about 60 MB, per restore point. So if you want

to be able to go back several weeks, you'll need perhaps 2 GB or more of

reserved space for it.

 

But whatever you can see now is what you have; you can't get back the older

ones that were already deleted due to the limited space.

 

Eric Anderson wrote:

> Questions:

>

> 1. I just found that I only have restore points back to the first week

> of August, but my computer was received in late June and I have been

> installing things right along. There is a checkbox that says to check

> it to get restore points older than 5 days, but that only displays a

> few more restore points.

> How do I get it to save restore points older than a few weeks.

>

> 2. Is there a way to edit the registry or have it "repaired" for

> standard Microsoft features that does not require reverting to an

> older version and losing EVERYTHING you have done as far as installs?

>

> Background:

> Several things do not work as they should and the solution is always

> to go back to a restore point where they did. Three problems with

> that. 1. I don't have a restore point where it worked (see above). 2.

> I have installed a lot of things that i don't want to reinstall just

> to get a minor thing working again. (I would have to do that,

> correct?) 3. I did not know that a feature was not working until just

> now. For example, I just found that the Windows Management

> Instrumentation (WMI) is not working in the windows sharing area. It

> recommends....you guessed it..... to revert back a restore point where

> it did work. I have no idea when that was (probably upon receipt of

> the computer). I am NOT going to go back there to get functionality of

> something I have not used yet with the loss of the functionality of

> everything I have installed. There are other irritating things that

> are also not working properly. For example, the Security Center

> service cannot be started. It does not appear to keep the security

> components from working, but I can't "turn it on". I assume that there

> is a corruption of something in the registery. It would sure be nice

> if there was a Microsoft utility that check standard Microsoft

> registry entries for integrity and fixed those.

[Guest Paul Montgomery]

Re: Restore points as a solution to all problems

 

On Aug 13, 12:12 am, "Bill in Co." <not_really_h...@earthlink.net>

wrote:

> There is a settings option in System Restore for how much space to allow for

> the system restore points.    

 

The bozo multi-posted and his post ended up in Vista.general too. In

Vista, it's a completely different animal and more difficult to

change... but even the OP might be able to handle it.

[Guest Eric Anderson]

Re: Restore points as a solution to all problems

 

On Aug 13, 1:12 am, "Bill in Co." <not_really_h...@earthlink.net>

wrote:

> There is a settings option in System Restore for how much space to allow for

> the system restore points.    System Restore points vary somewhat in size,

> but I've found them to be about 60 MB, per restore point.   So if you want

> to be able to go back several weeks, you'll need perhaps 2 GB or more of

> reserved space for it.

>

> But whatever you can see now is what you have; you can't get back the older

> ones that were already deleted due to the limited space.

>

>

>

> Eric Anderson wrote:

> > Questions:

>

> > 1. I just found that I only have restore points back to the first week

> > of August, but my computer was received in late June and I have been

> > installing things right along. There is a checkbox that says to check

> > it to get restore points older than 5 days, but that only displays a

> > few more restore points.

> > How do I get it to save restore points older than a few weeks.

>

> > 2. Is there a way to edit the registry or have it "repaired" for

> > standard Microsoft features that does not require reverting to an

> > older version and losing EVERYTHING you have done as far as installs?

>

> > Background:

> > Several things do not work as they should and the solution is always

> > to go back to a restore point where they did. Three problems with

> > that. 1. I don't have a restore point where it worked (see above). 2.

> > I have installed a lot of things that i don't want to reinstall just

> > to get a minor thing working again. (I would have to do that,

> > correct?) 3. I did not know that a feature was not working until just

> > now. For example, I just found that the Windows Management

> > Instrumentation (WMI) is not working in the windows sharing area. It

> > recommends....you guessed it..... to revert back a restore point where

> > it did work. I have no idea when that was (probably upon receipt of

> > the computer). I am NOT going to go back there to get functionality of

> > something I have not used yet with the loss of the functionality of

> > everything I have installed. There are other irritating things that

> > are also not working properly. For example, the Security Center

> > service cannot be started. It does not appear to keep the security

> > components from working, but I can't "turn it on". I assume that there

> > is a corruption of something in the registery. It would sure be nice

> > if there was a Microsoft utility that check standard Microsoft

> > registry entries for integrity and fixed those.- Hide quoted text -

>

> - Show quoted text -

 

I guess I should ask if it is possible to save a restore point in some

way "in my own area" that I can keep on a backup drive or something.

 

The system finally blew up and gave me a "blue screen of death" one

morning last week. It took me hours on the phone with Dell to recover

the thing. Damn good thing I have many backups spread all over the

place (paranoid, eh?) I attribute the problem to PC Mover (by

Laplink). I did not turn off all the anti-maleware programs,

firewalls, etc. before running the thing (there was no instruction

paper manual--a file I read later). These MOVER programs (PC Mover,

Easy File Transfer, etc) demand more time and expertise and possible

problems than just doing the moving yourself. That is what I did and

wrote an extensive step by step list of operations to do when you need

to restore your system. There are about 26 steps and I probably could

list 15 more. Many of these steps would not be covered in one of

these mover programs.