# Please share your experiences with System Restore using a Windows restore point. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695 "2012-02-03T23:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/1 "2012-02-03T23:21:51Z")
Restore to an earlier Time. I love the sound of those words. Especially after opening the wrong web site and my computer is suddenly showing twenty porn site pop ups every time IE is started. (_a typical example from work_) I’d appreciate hearing your experiences with System Restore using a windows restore point **Good and Bad experiences are needed.** 1. Viruses - did System Restore help or was the PC still infected/reinfected after the restore? 2. Screwed up Windows settings, add in tool bars - Did Restore put everything back like it was? I found that [Ask.com](http://Ask.com)’s toolbar is really tough to kill without a Restore. A lot of shareware tries to sneak [Ask.com](http://Ask.com)’s toolbar onto the pc. 3. What software did the Restore break? I just did a Restore using a Jan 28 restore point. It broke Norton Antivirus and Malwarebytes. I had just updated both and ran full scans. They were negative. So I did the Restore to get rid of [Ask.com](http://Ask.com) toolbar (uninstalling didn’t help). After the restore Norton and Malwarebytes refused to start. I think because the Restore _partially lost_ the updates I had just run. Both software packages were corrupted and required removing and reinstalling. 1. what’s your opinion about Restore Points? Useless, moderately helpful, Great? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/2 "2012-02-03T23:42:58Z")
For the non-technical Windows users… Restore points save your windows registry and important files in C:\windows and any user account(s) profiles (desktop and any of the users custom windows settings). It won’t save any User data. Word Docs, Spreadsheets, Databases, Movies, and Music all require their own separate Backup. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/3 "2012-02-03T23:51:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > 1. Viruses - did System Restore help or was the PC still infected/reinfected after the restore? Back in December I had one of those nasty fake virus scan trojans that hijacked my computer and locked me out of the internet and even my own files. System Restore knocked it back long enough for me to get online and update my actual antivirus (I had to use System Restore three, four times as it kept coming back for a while). That and a Windows security update appears to have killed it. > [@aceplace57](#): > > 1. what’s your opinion about Restore Points? Useless, moderately helpful, Great? Useful, but not a cure-all. > [@aceplace57](#): > > For the non-technical Windows users… > > Restore points save your windows registry and important files in C:\windows and any user account(s) profiles (desktop and any of the users custom windows settings). > > It won’t save any User data. Word Docs, Spreadsheets, Databases, Movies, and Music all require their own separate Backup. At least for me that mostly just meant “save it like normal”; it didn’t erase any files. What it did do was reset the tabs on Firefox back to what i was browsing when the point was created, but that was no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/4 "2012-02-04T00:16:51Z")
I’ve done a lot of system restores in my work. > [@aceplace57](#): > > 1. Viruses - did System Restore help or was the PC still infected/reinfected after the restore? It depends on the virus. It used to be that the virus would be saved as part of the image, so restoring it would only bringing back. It still works this way, but now you have a pretty good idea when you were infected (that big screen warned you), so you can pick a restore point before that. I’ve fixed a lot of viruses this way. So the answer is, ultimately, it works _ **IF** _ you know when you were infected. > [@](#): > > 1. Screwed up Windows settings, add in tool bars - Did Restore put everything back like it was? I found that [Ask.com](http://Ask.com)’s toolbar is really tough to kill without a Restore. A lot of shareware tries to sneak [Ask.com](http://Ask.com)’s toolbar onto the pc. It usually won’t touch toolbars, but you can delete the non-virus ones through add/remove programs. > [@](#): > > 1. What software did the Restore break? I haven’t seen a break, even the time I went back three months. [/quote] > [@](#): > > 1. what’s your opinion about Restore Points? Useless, moderately helpful, Great? Quite helpful, if you know how to pick the right restore point. I’d say your problem with broken programs was more to do with the infection than the system restore. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/5 "2012-02-04T00:32:27Z")
[Ask.com](http://Ask.com) is a very evil browser hijack. Google “[ask.com](http://ask.com) hijack” and you’ll see the misery its inflicted. I followed these instruction to slay the monster. [Redirecting](http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie8-windows_other/ie8-browser-hijack/8bf09d89-4436-4f4f-bf4e-3aa858ee9eed) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/6 "2012-02-04T00:38:50Z")
I’d say System Restore is moderately useful. Any serious virus will quickly reinfect the PC after the restore is done. Sometimes it buys time to install windows updates before the virus takes over again. I prefer restoring with a full disk image backup. Like Norton Ghost. That way your really are going back in time before evil things got into the computer. The learning curve for Norton Ghost can be pretty steep. Your typical home pc usually relies on System Restore and restore points. Plus backups of the data like photos, music and movies. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/7 "2012-02-04T01:19:08Z")
Sys Restore can work great when a setting gets changed or the system wants to crash because of corrupted files, which is no small task. All it can do is put your system back to the restore point. All updates since that time need to be reinstalled. I’ve never had it “break” anything or lose any files. That’s not what it does. The ugly part is when you really need it and the restore point “fails” with no detail or direction to go. So Restore is valuable, but another backup plan needs to be in place. For me, the ultimate plan is a clone disk that I can copy back in a few minutes and be pretty much up to date. I don’t use the ultimate plan if I can repair the MBR or the Windows installation with the Recovery Console or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-experiences-with-system-restore-using-a-windows-restore-point/611695/8 "2012-02-04T01:32:46Z")
If Windows screws up (frequently!), the forced reboot may cause the display to revert to 640x480, so I have to use the restore function to return to a “normal” display. This happens enough on different computers that I am alternately disgusted with Windows for causing the problem and grateful for providing the fix.