Santa said:
Now you know.... Microsoft Says Restore only does System files..
I found out a long time ago That This ISNOT True at all..
It is Very Dangerous to Do a RESTORE
Somewhat true, here's the facts: System Restore (SR) monitors all
selected drives (you can exclude specific drives from monitoring), and
monitors only specific file extensions for change (exe, dll, etc, but not
..doc, .txt, etc). It monitors the whole drive, EXCEPT
It DOES NOT monitor anything inside of any user's My Documents folder
(whatever its filename may be), but IT DOES monitor stuff inside the
remainder of the user profiles (ie, inside of \Documents and
Settings\..\..), like the desktop and IE cache and all the other
application temp/data folders
HENCE THE XP RULE: ALWAYS put ALL your personal stuff inside of your My
Documents branch, and NOT in folders at the root of the disk (the old dos
practice). This way SR is not monitoring them and will not delete or
revert any of them if you do a restore. DO NOT save downloads or works in
progress to the desktop (or leave them there too long), since the desktop
IS monitored and performing a restore will revert it to the date in the
past, prior to the download. Instead, place a shortcut on the desktop for
easy access, and leave the file somewhere inside of My Documents.
For a list of everything that SR does and does not monitor look at:
%SystemRoot%\System32\Restore\Filelist.xml
If you're proficient in XML then make a backup and mod as desired. As
usual, any screw up is your own fault! Changes will be noted on reboot and
next restore point.
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Want a good XP text book?:
Inside Windows XP, 2nd Edition, by Ed Bott et al.
It's the book that should have been included w/ your purchase. Be sure to
get the 2nd Edition (covers SP2), or buy the 1st if it's a good bargan
(worth $10 for sure). Entire eBook is on included CD ROM, very handy for
quick reference.
