Why System Restore Point does not work?

[Joe User]

Last month, I manually created a System Restore Point. Now a month later,
when I try to restore to that RP, I get an error to the effect of "cannot
uses Restore Point; system unchanged".

What could I have done wrong in created the RP? Or what more do I have to
do to use it?

All windows and applications are closed except for the two windows opened by
the Help and Support Center link.

By the way, I tried a number of RPs after the one I created, all to no
avail. In particular, I tried an automatic installation RP, which was
presumably created before I installed some third-party software today.

It is the third-party software, PGP, that I am trying to eliminate all
traces of. I suspect that simply uninstalling it was not good enough
<sigh>. (But that is only speculation at this point)

 

[SC Tom]

Last month, I manually created a System Restore Point. Now a month later,
when I try to restore to that RP, I get an error to the effect of "cannot
uses Restore Point; system unchanged".

What could I have done wrong in created the RP? Or what more do I have to
do to use it?

All windows and applications are closed except for the two windows opened
by the Help and Support Center link.

By the way, I tried a number of RPs after the one I created, all to no
avail. In particular, I tried an automatic installation RP, which was
presumably created before I installed some third-party software today.

It is the third-party software, PGP, that I am trying to eliminate all
traces of. I suspect that simply uninstalling it was not good enough
<sigh>. (But that is only speculation at this point)

Try a system restore in Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt:
"How to start the System Restore tool by using the safe mode option with the
Command prompt in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449 "

It has worked for me when other methods were less than successful.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

cf. http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html & possibly
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/symantecdoc1.html

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)?

Has a(another) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on the
computer (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?

From your headers: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512. Why isn't the
computer fully-patched at Windows Update?

 

[Joe User]

Try a system restore in Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt:
[....] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Safe Mode is definitely the way to go. That worked great!

(You might recognize the "yes, yes, yes!" line from the "Casino Royale"
remake c. 2006. That's exactly the kind of tortuous relief that I felt.
;->)

Didn't solve the problem I am having with (some) outbound mail, though. But
I can see that (some) OE configuration was definitely restored to its
pre-PGP-installation state. So perhaps this simply proves that the PGP
installation and subsequent removal is not the culprit. It could very well
be my ISP. I simply asked myself "what changed?" first.

I am looking at network traces to try to identify the outbound email
problem. But unfortunately, I don't have traces from the time that it used
to work to compare with. Since I am dealing with an encrypted connection,
it is difficult for me to identify problems by inspection.

But I digress.... Did I say "thank you"?


PS: My suspicions went to PGP because their customer support had told me
that simply installing the 30-day trial software would not cause PGP to do
anything automatically, something I wanted to avoid. But I discovered that
PGP EMail is indeed started automagically -- or I neglected to prevent it at
installation time -- causing PGP to pop up "unexpectedly" when I used
Outlook Express. My experience has taught me to be suspicious of products
that hook into other products automagically. It's a testing nightmare,
particularly uninstallation. Can you say "NxM test matrix"? ;-)


----- original message -----

 

[SC Tom]

You're welcome.
System Restore is great for recovering system files, but not so good for
removing other programs. But I'm glad it has worked out for you.
--
SC Tom

Try a system restore in Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt:
[....] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Safe Mode is definitely the way to go. That worked great!

(You might recognize the "yes, yes, yes!" line from the "Casino Royale"
remake c. 2006. That's exactly the kind of tortuous relief that I felt.
;->)

Didn't solve the problem I am having with (some) outbound mail, though.
But I can see that (some) OE configuration was definitely restored to its
pre-PGP-installation state. So perhaps this simply proves that the PGP
installation and subsequent removal is not the culprit. It could very
well be my ISP. I simply asked myself "what changed?" first.

I am looking at network traces to try to identify the outbound email
problem. But unfortunately, I don't have traces from the time that it
used to work to compare with. Since I am dealing with an encrypted
connection, it is difficult for me to identify problems by inspection.

But I digress.... Did I say "thank you"?


PS: My suspicions went to PGP because their customer support had told me
that simply installing the 30-day trial software would not cause PGP to do
anything automatically, something I wanted to avoid. But I discovered
that PGP EMail is indeed started automagically -- or I neglected to
prevent it at installation time -- causing PGP to pop up "unexpectedly"
when I used Outlook Express. My experience has taught me to be suspicious
of products that hook into other products automagically. It's a testing
nightmare, particularly uninstallation. Can you say "NxM test matrix"?
;-)


----- original message -----

 

[Joe User]

System Restore is great for recovering system
files, but not so good for removing other programs.

Ohfersure! I did write "and subsequent removal", and I referred to
"uninstall". The point is: of course I did uninstall PGP first. I also
checked the Remove Programs control panel, since I encountered an incomplete
"uninstall" once. The purpose of the Restore Point was to remove any
"hooks" (e.g. in the Registry) that PGP might have failed to remove when it
unstalled. But as I said, nothing changed for the better after the restore.
So perhaps the PGP uninstall was complete after all. Nevertheless, I am
grateful for the restore. It gives me peace of mind.


----- original message -----

You're welcome.
System Restore is great for recovering system files, but not so good for
removing other programs. But I'm glad it has worked out for you.
--
SC Tom

Try a system restore in Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt:
[....] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Safe Mode is definitely the way to go. That worked great!

(You might recognize the "yes, yes, yes!" line from the "Casino Royale"
remake c. 2006. That's exactly the kind of tortuous relief that I felt.
;->)

Didn't solve the problem I am having with (some) outbound mail, though.
But I can see that (some) OE configuration was definitely restored to its
pre-PGP-installation state. So perhaps this simply proves that the PGP
installation and subsequent removal is not the culprit. It could very
well be my ISP. I simply asked myself "what changed?" first.

I am looking at network traces to try to identify the outbound email
problem. But unfortunately, I don't have traces from the time that it
used to work to compare with. Since I am dealing with an encrypted
connection, it is difficult for me to identify problems by inspection.

But I digress.... Did I say "thank you"?


PS: My suspicions went to PGP because their customer support had told me
that simply installing the 30-day trial software would not cause PGP to
do anything automatically, something I wanted to avoid. But I discovered
that PGP EMail is indeed started automagically -- or I neglected to
prevent it at installation time -- causing PGP to pop up "unexpectedly"
when I used Outlook Express. My experience has taught me to be
suspicious of products that hook into other products automagically. It's
a testing nightmare, particularly uninstallation. Can you say "NxM test
matrix"? ;-)


----- original message -----

"Joe User" <joeu2004> wrote in message
Last month, I manually created a System Restore Point. Now a month
later, when I try to restore to that RP, I get an error to the effect
of "cannot uses Restore Point; system unchanged".

What could I have done wrong in created the RP? Or what more do I have
to do to use it?

All windows and applications are closed except for the two windows
opened by the Help and Support Center link.

By the way, I tried a number of RPs after the one I created, all to no
avail. In particular, I tried an automatic installation RP, which was
presumably created before I installed some third-party software today.

It is the third-party software, PGP, that I am trying to eliminate all
traces of. I suspect that simply uninstalling it was not good enough
<sigh>. (But that is only speculation at this point)
Try a system restore in Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt:
"How to start the System Restore tool by using the safe mode option with
the Command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449 "

It has worked for me when other methods were less than successful.