The mantra of 'Do No Harm' couldn't be more relevant than when it comes to your computer's registry. This is the heart of your computer and you've got to look after it. Creating a restore point is a fast, easy way to ensure that your computer will start up again instantly if there's a problem.

Have you ever made a real mess of something and wished you could travel back in time just a few moments and 'undo' what you've done? (I had that exact thought when I had a minor crash in my car once - but that's another story). The good news is that you can do exactly this in Windows.

A restore point captures a version of Windows that worked perfectly. And then lets you easily revert to that working version. Say you make a restore point today, your computer breaks down tomorrow. You could restore today's version and be back to normal again. That's what a Restore Point does.

Note: System Restore is only available in Windows 2000, XP or above.

Don't worry - system restore is a really easy process to go through. We're going to look at the 3 parts of the whole process. And once you know how to do it, it takes seconds to create one or restore from one. Really!

It's likely you've already got system restore turned on. But let's check this out anyway.

1) Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop.

2) Click on Properties on the menu that appears.

3) Now click on the system restore tab and you'll get this panel:




4) Make sure that you uncheck (if it's checked) the 'Turn off System Restore' box. That means that system restore is now turned ON.

While Windows creates Restore Points regularly on it's own, let's learn to set one yourselves. It's a good idea to set a Restore Point before you do anything with your registry. This includes doing a scan/repair job, or using a startup manager.

1) Start up Registry Easy

2) Click on Advance

3) Click on this button:



4) Click on Create a Restore Point

5) Give it a name - today's date is a good idea, but anything will do.

5) Click OK - and that's it. If you need to restore your system (which is really easy to do - see below) then it will be restored from NOW - from the point you just created.


Let's imagine that you've done something by accident that's killed your computer. Windows won't start and you're feeling really worried. Well you can relax. Thanks to system restore, we can easily flip back to the working version of our computer. Just follow these quick steps.

1) Remove any disks, CDs or DVDs from your computer.

2) Restart / turn on the computer.

3) Repeatedly press the F8 key as your computer restarts.

4) You have to do this BEFORE the Windows logo appears.

5) Now highlight Last Known Good Configuration and press the Enter key.

And that's all there is to it. Your PC will now work like it did before the disaster - as it did at the time you made the system Restore Point.

System Restore: frequently asked questions

Using Last Known Good Configuration

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