System Restore is a feature of Windows 7 that allows you to take Windows 7 back to an earlier date/time. You normally use System Restore when a piece of software and/or a windows update file for example has become corrupt and/or broken and therefore giving you problems. With system restore you are hoping that windows 7 can be restored back to a date/time when everything was working 100%, but there is no guarantee of this happening unfortunately.

Windows 7 creates a Restore (Repair) Point for you automatically every day, and whenever software is installed (i.e. a Program, Driver Software, Protection Software and so on). So if Windows 7 freezes/crashes frequently after software is installed you can use System Restore to restore Windows 7 back to the state it was in before the software was installed. Before I show you how to use System Restore I will first show you how to manually create a Restore Point.

To create a Restore Point you first need to open the Control Panel, and then click on the SYSTEM link (Fig 1.0) which will then open the System window (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.0  Click on the SYSTEM link from inside the Control Panel




Fig 1.1  Click on the SYSTEM PROTECTION link to continue

When the System window has opened look towards the top-left corner of the window. You should see four links (Device Manager, Remote Settings, System Protection and Advanced System Settings) with security shields on their left side. You need to click on the one called SYSTEM PROTECTION. Doing so might bring up a UAC (User Account Control) security requester, depending on your security settings and so on. If so, click on its CONTINUE button to continue. Regardless of a UAC security requester appearing or not, after that the next window to appear will be the System Properties window (Fig 1.2) whereby you need to click on its CREATE button to continue.

User Account Control (UAC) is a feature of Windows 7 that helps to prevent unauthorized changes to the computer, such as deleting a system file or creating a restore point. When attempting to create a restore point UAC automatically blocks you off with the above requester, because it wants to know if you are the one attempting to create the restore point and not a piece of malicious software for example. In this case you would simply click on the CONTINUE button to continue.

Fig 1.2  Click on the CREATE button to create a Restore Point

With the System Properties window open click on the CREATE button to create a restore point (Fig 1.3 above). A requester will then appear asking you to enter a Description for your restore point (Fig 1.3 below). Give the description some meaning. For example. If your computer is working fine and is fully updated with all the necessary Security updates and Windows 7 updates you could give your restore point a description like: Working Fine - Fully Updated. In this example I gave a description of: Working 100%. This lets me know in the future that at this restore point everything was working fine. When you have entered a description click on the CREATE button to continue.

Fig 1.3  Enter a description for your restore point and then click on CREATE to create it




Fig 1.4  The restore point is being created




Fig 1.5  The restore point has been created - Click on the CLOSE button to finish.

The reason for creating your own restore points is because some of Windows 7's restore points only have a description of - System: Scheduled CheckPoint - which means nothing to the average computer user. This only adds to confusion when doing a System Restore. Take the following scenario.

Imagine you have 8 of these - System: Scheduled CheckPoint - restore points and then you install some software called "YOUR". The software crashes halfway through the installation process and forces Windows 7 to crash (breakdown). You restart the computer but find Windows 7 still not fully working and frequently crashing, due to "YOUR" software corrupting Windows 7 files. You ignore the crashes, cursing Windows 7 along the way, but live with a damaged Windows 7. A month later it all gets too much and you go to see a Computer Engineer and say "I'm off to work now.....fix my computer....I'll collect it whenever". Even with the computer engineer knowing the history of what happened to your computer they cannot find evidence of "YOUR" software being installed. Why? Because "YOUR" software did not register itself with Windows 7. It never got to that stage. Therefore the computer engineer cannot just do a simple system restore before "YOUR" software was installed because "YOUR" software was not installed 100%, so was not listed in the restore list.

The computer engineer in this case has to rely on the date/time you said you attempted to install "YOUR" software. However, a month has passed and you cannot remember the exact date/time so you have to give the computer engineer a rough-idea date/time. The dilemma for the computer engineer is that if they restores the computer too far back previous corruption with Windows 7 might be exposed - Corruption that you might not of been aware of, perhaps due to a similar failed software installation that you ignored thinking "It failed/cancelled so it must not of done anything bad to Windows 7".

With the above scenario the computer engineer must System Restore one day before the date/time you stated and then work backwards, performing a System Restore on that date/time and then System Restore back one day at a time if necessary until the problems have been repaired/cleared. So if System Restoring back one day did not restore Windows 7 the computer engineer must System Restore back two days and so on until a good restore point (restore day) is found whereby Windows 7 is working again or is at least stable. If the computer engineer would of been able to see "YOUR Software installed 01/07/2007" for example in the restore list they could of quickly restored Windows 7 to one day before 01/07/2007 or before the point of "YOUR" software being installed. The - System: Scheduled CheckPoint - restore points have a date/time associated with them but are useless description-wise. It would be good if they described non-working or disabled software for example.

To restore the computer back to an earlier date/time, preferably when it was working 100% or at least stable, begin by going to the System Protection window - Either as described above (START MENU >> CONTROL PANEL >> SYSTEM Link >> SYSTEM PROTECTION Link) or by clicking on the SYSTEM RESTORE Link from within the SYSTEM TOOLS folder on the START Menu (START Menu >> ACCESSORIES >> SYSTEM TOOLS Folder >> SYSTEM RESTORE Link). Either way will take you to the System Protection window whereby you then need to click on the SYSTEM RESTORE button to continue.

Fig 2.0  System Restore from the Control Panel

Fig 2.1  System Restore from the START Menu

After clicking on the SYSTEM RESTORE link, either from the Control Panel or from the START Menu, System Restore will be started. You will be greeted by a Welcome message (Fig 2.3 below) followed by the actual System Restore Points window (Fig 2.4 below). It offers you two options to restore Windows 7. The first option is to use a recommended Restore Point, which is normally the most recent restore point.

In this example the most recent restore point was created on 26/11/2009 at 14:03:00, just before I installed Adobe Reader 9.2.0. System Restore is now offering to undo my software installation of Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and then copy back (restore) the Windows 7 files that were backed-up on 26/11/2009 at 14:03:00. So if it is now the next day (27/11/2009), at 10:30:00, all the Windows 7 files that were backed-up on 26/11/2009 at 14:03:00 will be restored (copied back) but the current date/time will be 27/11/2009 10:30:00. Only Windows 7 files will be restored - Your personal files are not affected by a system restore.

Fig 2.2  Preparing to start System Restore




Fig 2.3  Click on the NEXT button to continue




Fig 2.4  Click on the NEXT button to restore the most recent backed-up files




Fig 2.5  Click on FINISH to start the restoration process

Clicking on the FINISH button will start the restoration process for the most recent restore point. However. If I wanted to choose my own restore point I would have to use System Restore's second option - CHOOSE A DIFFERENT RESTORE POINT - by clicking on its radio (circle) button.

Fig 2.6  Select the second option - CHOOSE A DIFFERENT RESTORE POINT - to use another restore point




Fig 2.7  Select the restore point you want to use




Fig 2.8  Click on FINISH to start the restoration process

In this example (Fig 2.7 above) I have chosen to use the restore point I created in Figures 1.2 to 1.5 above, called Working 100%. I know I created it because its description states MANUAL (Fig 2.7 above). If Windows 7 had created it its description would of stated SYSTEM. And if Windows 7, some Hardware or some Software had created it its description would of stated INSTALL.

After clicking on the FINISH button, of whichever restoration option you chose, the next window to appear is a warning/notice message requester that needs your attention - Read it carefully. If you agree to what it says click on its YES button to continue with the restoration process, otherwise click on its NO button to cancel the restoration process.

Fig 2.9  Read the information very carefully before clicking on the YES button




Fig 2.10  The restoration process has begun

At this stage of the restoration process, when the above progress window appears with its green (progress) guage going across the window, you should not do anything with the computer. This is because after a short while the restoration process will restart the computer, in order to complete the restoration. When this happens and the computer is up and running again you should, hopefully, see the following window stating that the restoration (system restore) was successful.

Fig 2.11  The restoration process has completed successfully

In this example system restore copied back (restored) the Windows 7 files that were backed-up on 24/11/2009 at 21:45:45. The date/time I created the restore point called Working 100%. As the above completion window states, my documents (personal files) were not affected.

If you find upon returning (computer restart) from a System Restore that Windows 7 states your restore point could not be successfully applied, for whatever reason(s), you may want to try again by clicking on the RUN SYSTEM RESTORE button (to re-run System Restore with a different restore point) or just give up and accept failure by clicking on the CLOSE button.

Fig 3.0  The restoration process failed - The restore point could not be successfully applied, for whatever reason(s).

Three things you can try, before giving up, are; 1) Unplug any hardware that is not needed (i.e. Flash Drive, Printer, Etc). 2) Disable, or even uninstall, your Security software (Anti-Virus, Firewall, Etc). And 3) Delete any other User Accounts. Some of these are drastic measures but do work.

When I was trying to restore Windows 7 using the above Working 100% restore point for example I first did a standard restore (as above with nothing unplugged, disabled or uninstalled).....to no avail. I then tried again but this time with my Norton Internet Security 2009 software disabled.....again, to no avail. So I then uninstalled that software and deleted my Standard Windows User Account called John. Doing these two things restored Windows 7 back to "normal", using the Working 100% restore point. So sometimes it is a case of trial and error. This does not mean all restore points will work though. Sometimes you have to select one or more restore points in turn before you get one that works (restores Windows 7 back), but as nothing is guaranteed you might not get any working at all.

In Figures 2.4 to 2.8 you may of noticed a link or button called SCAN FOR AFFECTED PROGRAMS. This has nothing to do with scanning for virus infected files or anything. It actually scans the restore point and tells you what programs, if any, will be affected by the restore process (i.e. what programs might be restored but not work properly for example, for whatever reason(s), due to them being incomplete upon a successful restore). So you do have options before giving up the idea of a system restore.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.