Hi Dave,

You wrote: " Does System Restore restore the Programs Directory and 
associated directories ?"

Yes ,it does ,provided of course that the Restore Service is running, system 
drive is monitored
and Restore points have been set. (prior to the disappearance of these 
Program directories)
You can read a lot more on this in the following links: Covering XP,Vista 
and Win7
(Basically they're the same with some variations.)
How to restore Windows XP to a previous state
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-is-System-Restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/System-Restore-frequently-asked-questions
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Turn-back-time-on-your-PC-Undo-system-changes-with-System-Restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/system-restore
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/System-Restore-frequently-asked-questions

Ok, here are my personal views on System Restore.
While very useful, System Restore is not the most reliable utility to base 
you trust on.
It's supposed to set a Restore point automatically ,usually at logon (called 
System Checkpoint) ,but often doesn't.
Many things can interfere with setting Restore Points or doing a System 
Restore.
Restore Points can easily get corrupted or wiped out.
Since it monitors system file creation ,it also stores the info of corrupted 
or infected files,
which could re-appear after a Restore.
From my own experience (for others mileage may vary) , files or folders 
created at the root of C:\
will be subject to the System Restore procedure.

In general, files and folders in a User's profile are not subject to change 
,but there seem to be exceptions.
Personal data ' like media or documents ,pictures ,email etc are not 
"restorable" by System Restore
(if deleted prior to the Restore)
Lack of file -or folder selection for inclusion or exclusion in the System 
Restore process is a negative.
As you could see in the pages that I linked to ,Microsoft is fairly vague 
about the exact files or folders
that System Restore monitors.

In conclusion, yes you can use System Restore and if it's working ,can 
provide a quick fix,
but a much better method is to create an image or backup, preferably done 
from outside the active partition or drive,
eg from a bootable CD based program or from another partition.
BTW, the danger of including malware in these image or backups ,always 
exists ,so it's very important
to keep your system as clean as possible.

Sorry - Short question -long answer . (grin)

Peter E.


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Dave@MonroeCommunity"
Sent: Tuesday, 17 May, 2011 6:51 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Can't Set System Restore Points -@Diane

Peter,
Does System Restore restore the Programs Directory and associated
directories ?

 

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