Restoring to a System Restore Point in Windows 7

[nitinagarwal1988]

Occasionally, a user might experience reliability problems. For example, an installation might update a driver with a less-reliable version or an application might overwrite files with incompatible versions. In some cases, uninstalling an update or application will not reverse every change that has been made. To recover from this problem system restore is developed, System Restore in Windows 7 have many new features but before using them, check what’s the real difference is.

In rolling back all system changes made since the restore point, previous versions of System Restore also reversed system changes unrelated to the problem:

• Applications and drivers that were installed after the System Restore point will be removed.
• Applications and drivers removed after the System Restore point will be restored.

These earlier versions of Windows made it difficult for users or IT professional to determine which components would be affected by restoring to a System Restore point. Users were predictably frustrated when they discovered that some of their applications were no longer available. Often, these users called the support center for help—once again consuming the IT professional’s time. With Windows 7, the user or IT professional can view a list of software changes (based on applications listed in Add/Remove Programs) before rolling Windows 7 back to an earlier state. By offering a more complete explanation of a System Restore outcome, such as removing an application that should be preserved, an IT professional can choose a different restore point or make certain to reinstall the application afterward.

In Windows 7, restore points will also be available from system images created by the end users (similar to Complete PC backups in Windows Vista), allowing System Restore to roll-back to a point further back in time than the local System Restore storage would allow. In other words, backups to external hard disks can be used for restore points, too.

Like many other aspects of Windows 7, System Restore enables IT professionals to be more effective and productive through the use of PowerShell. PowerShell can create a System Restore point or restore a computer to a System Restore point, even remotely.

Therefore, while on a support call, IT professionals can connect to a computer from across the network and create a System Restore point before making any changes that might negatively affect the computer’s stability. Scripts that perform troubleshooting or configuration tasks can automatically create a System Restore point to allow changes to be easily restored. Finally, an IT professional could use a PowerShell script to restore a computer to an earlier System Restore point, even across the network.

Source | Microsoft Windows7 documents.

[Dukesdad]

I used the Glarry utilities today and could not restart my computer.
Repair options were to use system restore, but it would not work.
I tried with the Win7 dvd, but all I could do is reinstall.
Installed fine, but I noticed there is about 60 gbs used on my c drive.
I know before any of this happened I had about 40 gbs used on C:
I see I now have restore points going back about a week.
What would happen if I tried one of these restore points from before I crashed?

[roraniel]

If it does what it normally used to do for me it will go all the way through the process then say your computer could not be restored. That is why I went to Acronis True Image and do an aggressive backup routine.

Originally Posted by Dukesdad

I used the Glarry utilities today and could not restart my computer.
Repair options were to use system restore, but it would not work.
I tried with the Win7 dvd, but all I could do is reinstall.
Installed fine, but I noticed there is about 60 gbs used on my c drive.
I know before any of this happened I had about 40 gbs used on C:
I see I now have restore points going back about a week.
What would happen if I tried one of these restore points from before I crashed?

[Dukesdad]

I use Acronis True Image on my other computer.

[nitinagarwal1988]

i prefer to create a new and healthy system restore point time to time, so if face any problem the system restore will work fine, i prefer to create restore point using windows as comparing to any other software....

[tweakwindows]

I used the Glarry utilities today and could not restart my computer.
Repair options were to use system restore, but it would not work.
I tried with the Win7 dvd, but all I could do is reinstall.
Installed fine, but I noticed there is about 60 gbs used on my c drive.
I know before any of this happened I had about 40 gbs used on C:
I see I now have restore points going back about a week.
What would happen if I tried one of these restore points from before I crashed?

Didn't you do a clean install? Windows 7 can't take your 60GB. I think you haven't done a clean install so it's 45 GB old data + 15 GB= 60 GB now.

I see I now have restore points going back about a week.
What would happen if I tried one of these restore points from before I crashed?

Is it showing old restore points?

[Dukesdad]

The old restore points didn't work so I deleted them through disc cleanup.
I now have about 47 gb used space.
This is an Acer Aspire 8930g laptop.
All of the Acer stuff is not working, such as the Acer Arcade, which is their version of a media center. Also the fingerprint reader and webcam aren,t showing.
Perhaps they are in the extra 30 something gb?
Other than those problems, the computer seems very stable.
Does anyone know a good sysinfo product that might identify my fingerprint reader etc? PC wizard doesn't work very well in 64 bit.

[Ramesh Kumar MVP]

Originally Posted by nitinagarwal1988

i prefer to create a new and healthy system restore point time to time, so if face any problem the system restore will work fine, i prefer to create restore point using windows as comparing to any other software....

My Windows Vista and W7 as well create system checkpoint automatically for me