How do I create a system restore point?

Restoring the system allows you to do a "rollback"to one of the previous states of the operating system. It affects system files, registry keys, installed programs, drivers, but does not affect the user's personal files. The previous state of the system is called system restore point.

The operating system itself creates system restore points, for example, after installing the program or the next system update. But sometimes you may need create a system restore point yourself, say, if you have concerns about the program or driver that you want to install, and you need to keep the current system configuration.

How to create a restore point in Windows XP

To create Windows XP Restore Point manually, you need to start the System Restore tool. To do this, go to the menu Start, select the option All programs, then Standard - System Tools - System Restore. The Welcome Wizard will open. Set the radio button to the option Create recovery point and click the Further.

The window for creating a control point opens. You will be prompted for a name for the new recovery point. The name should be understandable to you - if many recovery points are created, they are easily confused. Note that after creating a restore point, you can not edit it, so be careful. The time and date of the recovery point creation will be automatically added to the name. Then click on the button Create - the recovery point is ready!

How to create a recovery point in Windows 7

Process of creation Windows 7 restore points differs from the similar process in Windows XP. If you tried to start the recovery service in this version of the OS, you noticed that the wizard did not have a recovery point option. So you have to go the other way.

Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop. A shortcut menu will appear in which you select the option Properties. In the left menu, click on the link System protection. The system properties window with the active tab opens System protection. You need the lowest option - "Create a recovery point for disks with system protection enabled". Click the button Create.

As in Windows XP, you need to enter a name for therecovery points. Here the rule is the same - the main thing is that by this name you can then identify the point of recovery that you need. The date and time, again, will be added automatically. Then click the button Create. The time it takes to create a recovery point will depend on the performance of your computer, the amount of data stored, and some other factors.

Configuring System Restore

In addition to creating a recovery point, you can enable and disable system recovery for one or more hard disks, and also to regulate the size of the disk space reserved for system recovery.

For this in Windows XP you need to right-click the My Computer icon, select the option Properties and in the opened window go to the tab System Restore. By putting or removing the checkbox next to the option Disable system recovery on all disks, you respectively activate or disable the restore.

To configure the recovery options for each hard disk, select Available discs section and click the button. Options. You can disable system recovery foreach disk separately (note: you can not disable the recovery on the system drive without having to disable it previously on all other disks), and also change the amount of space reserved for the storage of recovery points. It may take up to 12% of the disk space for the recovery service to function properly.

To do this procedure in Windows 7, go to Protection of the system (as well as when creating a restore point). Select the desired drive from the list Security settings, click the button Tune, and then the settings in Windows 7 are similar to the similar procedure in Windows XP.