Creating a System Restore in XP

It is really important to do a System backup before to do any changes in Registry. The windows XP bring to us a built-in solution named: System Restore.

The System Restore feature is built into Windows XP and is used to return your computer to an earlier state if you have a system failure or other major problem with your computer. The point of System Restore is to restore your system to a workable state without you having to reinstall the operating system and lose your data files in the process.

How does it works ?

The System Restore takes snapshots from registry and dynamic configuration files from your system and tracks all changes that happen as since a determined point. It is very important when you are trying new devices (like cameras, scanners and printers) or trying new products like anti-virus and registry cleaners.

Space Required

To do a system restore you will need at least 200 MB of free space. is used to store the data gathered for the restore points. If you don't have this amount of free space, System Restore will disable itself until the space becomes available. System Restore will create and save restore points until this space is full, and will then begin writing over itself beginning with the least recent data.

Creating a System Restore

Before to do any suspect software installation, you must create manually a System Restore.

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, click System Restore
On the Welcome page, click Create a restore point.
On the Create a Restore Point page, enter a name for your restore point, as show in Figure 1, and click Create.

Figure 1.

The Restore Point Created page confirms that the new restore point has been created. Some applications can create by themselves a new Restore Point. But it’s not common and probably any Registry Cleaner, Anti-virus and Device drivers companies won’t do it.

Using System Restore

So after that you checked your disk space, check if you are logged on as Administrator and let’s start to use it.

Click start, all Programs, Accessories, System Tools and click System Restore.
On the Welcome screen, click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next.
On the Select a Restore Point, select the date from the calendar that shows the point that you like to set as a restore point, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

On the Confirm Restore Point selection, check if you choose the correct restore point and then close any program that still running.
Click Next
The computer will reboot. On reboot, you will see the Restoration Complete page, click OK.

Final Words

As you should know, Restore Point is just a Troubleshoot tool and it must not substitute the regular backups. You can schedule, using the Schedule Tasks, your system to create periodically new Restore points. You can do it Daily or weekly, but remember that you'll have to reinstall any programs that were installed after the restore point.