System Restore for Windows XP

System Restore for Windows XP

How the System Restore Utility Uses Drive Letters Information on System Restore and Password Restoration
How to Disable the System Restore Configuration Non-Admin User Is Unable to Start System Restore Utility
System Restore "Restore Points" Are Missing or Deleted Improper Shutdown May Affect System Restore
Install Additional Files During Automated System Recovery How to Turn On and Turn Off System Restore in Win XP
The Registry Keys and Values for the System Restore Utility Highlights of System Restore fixes included in SP1

Microsoft Windows XP System Restore
Bobbie Harder

On the creation of a scheduled task for creating a restore point, System Restore does create a restore point every 24 hours IF the system is idle, but on and not in hibernate or standby, (idle meaning no disk i/o, mouse or keyboard activity).

Too many restore points per day, and due to space limitations, cause older more valuable restore points potentially to be aged out, while ensuring additional space for perhaps duplicative restore points.

Windows XP System Restore (Contents Include):

Introduction, Detail, Design Overview, Automatically Created Restore Points, System and Application File Change
Monitoring Restore Process, What's Restored and What's Not, Interoperation with Other Windows XP Recovery Features, Files Monitored and Restored by System Restore. For detailed information click here.

How to Enable and Disable Windows XP's System Restore feature

System Restore (restorept.api) is a new Windows XP feature that's similar to "Last Known Configuration." However, System Restore maintains multiple restore points instead of one last restore point. The user can manually create restore points, or System Restore can keep restore points during the following operations:

Installing new software, if the application uses a current installer that is System Restore-compliant, Using AutoUpdate, During a restore operation, During a Microsoft backup or recovery operation, Installing an unsigned driver, Automatically following 24 hours of inactivity.

By default, System Restore monitors all partitions. So, for example, if you delete an executable file, you can have the system state revert to a specific restore point to recreate or repair the executable file. When you revert to a restore point, however, you lose all changes since that point, except for changes to files in the My Documents folder and documents you've created with applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

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.

To enable or disable System Restore, perform the following steps:

Start the System Control Panel applet. Select the System Restore tab. Clear the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" check box to enable System Restore, or select this check box to disable System Restore. Click OK. Also here:

To delete older restore points, but leave the system restore turned on: Right Click the Drive in question/Properties/Disk Cleanup/More Options/System Restore/Cleanup.

You can also click the Settings button to set a maximum amount of space that you want each drive to use for restore information. If the drive you select isn't the system drive, you can also disable System Restore on a per-drive basis. The maximum amount of space that you can use for restore information is 12 percent per drive.

An alternative to the usual method of enabling and disabling Windows XP's System Restore feature is to use the registry. To use this alternative, perform the following steps: Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore.
If a "DisableSR" value doesn't exist, go to the Edit menu, select New, DWORD value, and create the value.
Set the value to 1 to disable System Restore or 0 to enable System Restore.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sr to prevent the System Restore service from starting.

Double-click Start, and set the value to 4 to stop the service from starting or to 0 for normal startup. Close the registry editor.

***Added Notes by: Barry Nordendale (7-9-05)

"After making SR disabled in services, I tried to open SR (no reboot) in CP/Services it said SR is off, would you like to turn on. I said yes and everything works fine now!"

System Restore Usage

System Restore Requirements:

System Restore is automatically installed and configured on Windows XP if your computer has at least 200MB of free disk space after Windows XP is installed.

Enabling System Restore:

Right click my computer icon, properties. System Restore Tab, Clear "Turn Off System Restore on all Drives".

Adjust System Restore Disk Usage

By default, System Restore is given 12% of your hard disk space when you install Windows XP. Change amount: Right click my computer icon, properties. System Restore Tab, Settings.

Creating Restore Points

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. In the System Restore window, click "Create a Restore Point button, next. In the window that appears, enter a description. The date and time is created automatically.

Running System Restore

If you can boot Windows:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. Click the Restore My Computer to an earlier time, next.

If you cannot boot Windows:

Boot into safe mode. Click the System Restore link. Click the Restore My Computer to an earlier time, next.

Note: Current documents, files and e-mail are not affected during a restoration.

Undoing a Restoration

Reversing Restoration if you can boot your computer:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore. Click "Undo my last restoration", next. Click Ok to the
screen message after the reboot.

Reversing Restoration if you cannot boot your computer:

Boot into safe mode, follow the help screen and choose, "Undo my last restoration".

Note: If you have chosen the wrong restore date, follow the steps under, "Undoing a Restoration".

How and Where System Restore Points are saved:

Restore points are saved in under x:\system volume information\_restore{558C94FD-3C7F-4954-A02D-
26679E6D849E}. Each restore point's files are saved in a folder named RPXX where XX is a two digit number
corresponding to the restore point.

System Restore: Description and Functionality of Srdiag.exe

The file Srdiag.exe is a tool developed specifically for capturing System Restore files and putting them into a text format or other format so that a support professional or an advanced user can easily view the contents of such files to try to diagnose problems that are occurring with System Restore.

Srdiag.exe collects all information that is related to System Restore and puts it in a .cab file. The .cab file name is then
automatically generated by using the computer name, followed by a timestamp for the month, day, and year, as well as a timestamp for the hour, minutes and seconds of the .cab file creation. More Information.

What is restored on my machine when I use System Restore and what is not?
The following are restored when you use System Restore to restore your system to a previous time using a restore point:

Registry
Profiles (local only—roaming user profiles not impacted by restore)
COM+ DB
WFP.dll cache
WMI DB
IIS Metabase
Files type which are monitored by System Restore as specified in the SDK available from http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/sr/sr/monitored_file_extensions.asp.

The following are not restored by System Restore:

DRM settings
Passwords in the SAM hive.
WPA settings (Windows authentication information is not restored)
Specific directories/files listed in the Monitored File Extensions list in the System Restore section of the Platform SDK e.g. 'My Documents' folder.
Any file types not monitored by System Restore like personal data files e.g. .doc, .jpg, .txt etc.
Items listed in both Filesnottobackup and KeysnottoRestore (hklm->system->controlset001->control->backuprestore->filesnottobackup and keysnottorestore) in the registry.
User-created data stored in the user profile
Contents of redirected folders

Troubleshooting System Restore in Windows XP

To troubleshoot System Restore issues, try one or more of the following steps:

- If you receive an error message that is related to System Restore, always make sure that you first record the error message
and follow the instructions that the error message contains to try to resolve the issue. Most System Restore issues generate
an error message that contains a description of the issue and suggestions for how to resolve the issue.
- Make sure that you have enough disk space on all of the drives on which System Restore is enabled.
- Make sure that the System Restore service is running by using one of the following methods:

- Check in Control Panel:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click "Performance and Maintenance".
2. Click Administrative Tools, click Computer Management, and then click Services and Applications.
3. Click Services, and then click System Restore Services.

- Open a command prompt window:

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type "CMD" (without the quotation marks).
2. Press the ENTER key, and then type "Net Start" (without the quotation marks) at the command prompt to make sure that
the System Restore service is up and running.

- Make sure that System Restore is enabled on the drives that you want System Restore enabled on.
- Try to run System Restore in Safe mode.
- If you suspect that you do not have as many restore points as you should have, make sure that the data store is the size that
you want the data store to be.

- Check the event logs to investigate System Restore service errors:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click "Performance and Maintenance".
2. Click Administrative Tools, click Computer Management, double-click Event Viewer, and then click System.
3. Click the Source tab to sort by name, and then look for "sr" or "srservice." Double-click each of these services, and then
evaluate the event description for any indication of the cause of the problem.

System Restore cannot create a restore point. Please restart your computer

Disable System Restore, reboot, then enable.

System Restore Should Not Be Enabled During Program Installation

When you first enable System Restore, this creates an initial restore point. If you enable System Restore during a program installation, this may corrupt the initial restore point.

System Restore tracks changes to the registry and system files. By keeping a record of changes, System Restore can undo the changes to set the computer back to a previous state, which is also called a restore point. To create a restore
point, use the System Restore program in the System Tools folder, which is on the Start menu.

In Control Panel, you can enable and disable System Restore in System properties on the System Restore tab. When you disable System Restore, all previous restore points are lost because System Restore is no longer able to track changes and is
therefore unable to undo those changes.

When you re-enable System Restore, it creates an initial restore point. If you enable System Restore while you are installing a program, this may corrupt the initial restore point as well as all subsequent restore points. There is no way to determine if the initial restore point is corrupted.

System Restore Tool Displays a Blank Calendar in Windows XP

When you run the System Restore tool on a Windows XP-based computer, the calendar on the left side of the "Choose a Restore Point" window is not displayed. This behavior can occur if the file association for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) component (.htc) files is not in the registry. To resolve this behavior, verify that the following keys are in the registry. Keys are listed here.

How to Start the Windows XP System Restore Tool if You Can't Boot

Boot into safe mode/Log on with Admin Privileges/ Type: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe. Then press enter.
HOW TO: Restore Windows XP to a Previous State.

VB Script to Run Unattended Restore Point Creation as a Scheduled Task by MS-MVP Doug Knox

This VB Script can be run as a Scheduled Task to create an unattended System Restore Point. The Restore point will be identified as Automatic Restore Point with the date and time the script was run.

Usage: Download xp_sysrestorepoint.vbs and save this file to your hard drive. Create a new Scheduled Task and point it to the VBS file. After the script runs, it will leave a dialog telling you whether or not the Restore Point was successfully created. This script can be viewed in Notepad or any text editor, as to the specific Registry key and value that are updated.

Restore System Restore Points VBS Scripts by MS-MVP Bill James
Download Here

Create a System Restore Point Each Day
MVP-Bill James

Copy the following 3 lines to NotePad, then save it with .vbs extension (for example, CreateRP.vbs). You can run it manually to create a Restore Point by double clicking, or add it as a scheduled task.

This script creates a System Restore Point for Windows XP.
rp = "Manual Restore Point by " & WScript.ScriptName
GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore").CreateRestorePoint rp, 0, 100

Note: This script is not well suited for creating an unattended System Restore point, since it requires user intervention. The attached VB Script (modified from the original script) will do automate the process for a scheduled task.

When you create a scheduled task for this script, you will need to give a user name and password with sufficient "permissions" to create a restore point. System Restore Points: By Doug Knox MS-MVP. Download Here.
Unable to use System Restore due to "missing framedyn.dll. Please reinstall the application to fix this problem".

A temporary fix to address this issue is to make the user copy the framedyn.dll file from \Windows\System32\WBEM directory to the \Windows\System32 directory.

Re-Activation for Windows XP

Should you restore your system to a point before you activated XP on your computer, the OS will forget that you activated it and you'll need to reactivate XP. If the system restore point is past the 30-day grace period that Microsoft allows for activation, you'll have to activate XP immediately.

The only workaround to reactivating your system is to perform the following steps:

Start your Windows installation in Minimal Safe mode.

Move to the \%systemroot%\system32 folder.
Rename wpa.dbl to wpa.noact.
Rename wpa.bak to wpa.dbl.
Reboot your system as normal.

Note: The above procedure will work only if you've made no significant hardware changes.

Highlights of System Restore fixes included in SP1

1. Fix for SR not launching due to the framedyn.dll error you all have been reporting.

2. No calendar availaible in the SR wizard to select restore points due to the the .htc file association being knocked out in the
registry has been fixed.

3. A fix for SR failing restores. A lot of you were seeing failed restores when restoring to any restore point. Although some of
it was attributed to SR data store corruption, in most cases it was possibly due to locked file issues causing the restore
process to fail, especially in scenarios where fast user switching was used. This was a known issue which is now fixed in in
SP1.

This will hopefully resolve all cases for failed restores and it would be great if all of you running into this problem could
upgrade to SP1 and provide us feedback on this issue, whether it has resolved the problem for you or not.

4. Fix for drive table inconsistency on a machine causing SR to not create restore points.

5. Security fixes for SR to keep away those terrible hackers and viruses.

So upgrade to SP1 and provide us with some feedback on your issues with SR and whether they are now resolved, especially when dealing with failed restores.

Anshul Rawat [MS]
System Restore, Windows XP