The Hindu Business Line : System Restore in Windows XP

Recently I restored my computer to an earlier date as I felt that some programmes installed were causing problems. After this restoration, the system is functioning well. However, since then, I have been wondering what has happened to several programs, of 15/20 MB size, installed prior to the Date of Restoration. These programs are not listed in All Programs. What has happened to them? Are these stored in some location of the computer which is not accessible to me? Please suggest a solution.

SAMIR ROY

Once you install Windows XP, if your system has at least 200 MB free space, System Restore is automatically turned on, with monitoring status for all drives.

System Restore monitors only system files and registry information, it will not monitor user files. When you revert to a restore point, however, you lose all changes since that point, except for changes to files in the My Documents, favorites folder, and Application files types, for example doc, xls, mdb, pdf, dbx (Outlook Express), pst (Outlook), etc. In other words, System Restore does not change your documents.

If you use System Restore and don't like the new system state, you can undo the process and restore the machine to the system state it had before you ran System Restore.

Alternatively, you can run System Restore to change the system state to a different restore point.

With specific reference to your query, System Restore does not completely uninstall any program if restoring to a point prior to the program installation. Programs installed in between the dates of Restoration will become orphan programs and they may not work because they may not have the required registry information. The installed application folders may exist in the "Program Files" folder but the program's DLLs, EXEs, INIs, etc, will not be there. Also, these applications will not be listed in Start - All Programs.

If you need that application or program, you will need to reinstall that application. If you do not need that application, then please uninstall the program through "Control Panel" - "Add or Remove Programs". If it is not listed in Add or Remove Programs, simply delete the program folder, which exists in C:\Program Files folder. Please substitute the drive letter accordingly instead of C.

If you enable system restore, restore points are saved in the location c:\ system volume information\restoreGUID.

GUID is a unique 32-character alphanumeric identifier. Each restore point's files are saved in a folder named RPXX (such as RP01, RP02, etc,) where XX is a two digit number corresponding to the restore point.

In Windows XP, System Restore allocates 12 per cent of your hard disk space on each drive and you, with admin privileges, can change this setting.

By default, System Restore deletes restore points after 90 days.

Normally, System Restore creates a restore point every 24 hours if you leave your computer on.

For more information, please look up http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ xp_restore.htm

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ windowsxp/bb264753.aspx

SOLUTION BY M. SAMPATH

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