Restore is not reliable. It's a marketing gimmick for MS.
You can turn it off from Control Panel > System > and then
re-boot and it will purge it's file. Then re-boot, turn it
back on.
You still have to deal the problem, it's a crap program,
that half works, half the time. It's like a parachute,
will it open if you need it ?? Maybe !!! It is not
isolated from any viruses and must be purged to keep from
a re-infection. If you use it, fine, Have I, yes !!! But I
learned the hard way about it's reliability, it can't be
trusted !!I It's too easy to use NTBack-up to back up your
system state, but not to a cd, cause that's another issue.
Save it to a folder then burn it. Oh, I forgot you may
have to install NTBackup since MS decided you did not need
it in XP Home, that 75% of users have. Oh, you have a OEM
and you don't have NTBackup Get it here :
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/ntbackup.msi
Do a real backup and get Erunt for your registry. It puts
a folder on your root dir with a installer.
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/
If you're a true MS believer, Keep drinking the purple
cool-aid, the hale-bop comet is returning, they have room
for you !!
System Restore :: In MS's own words .......lol
"The System Restore feature of Windows XP enables you to
restore a PC, in the event of a problem, to a previous
state without losing personal data files. System Restore
actively monitors system file changes to record or store
previous versions before the changes occurred. With System
Restore, you never have to think about taking system
snapshots as it automatically creates easily identifiable
restore points, which allow you to restore the system to a
previous point in time."
"you never have to think about taking system snapshots"
Oh, really.
Learn more:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?
url=/technet/itcommunity/Newsgroups/FAQSRWXP.asp