Creating a Vista System Restore Point

1. Choose Start➪Control Panel➪Backup Your Computer (under System and Maintenance).

2. In the Backup and Restore Center window, click Create a Restore Point or Change Settings under Tasks. The User Account Control might display a dialog box asking for your permission to continue; if so, click Continue.

3. On the System Protection tab of the System Properties dialog box that appears, click Create.

4. In the resulting Create a Restore Point dialog box, enter a description; this description is helpful if you create multiple restore points and want to identify the correct one. The current date is usually your best bet.

5. Click the Create button, and the system restore point is created and is available to you when you run a System Restore. (See the following task for more about this.)

6. In the dialog box that appears telling you the restore point was created successfully, click OK and then click OK again to close the Control Panel.

Every once in a while, when you install some software, make some new settings in Windows, and things seem to be running just fine, create a system restore point. It’s good computer practice, just like backing up your files, only you’re backing up your settings. Once a month or once every couple months works for most people, but if you frequently make changes, create a system restore point more often. A more drastic option to System Restore is to run the system recovery disc that probably came with your computer or that you created using discs you provided. However, system recovery essentially puts your computer right back to the configuration it had when it was carried out of the factory. That means you lose any software you’ve installed and documents you’ve created since you began to use it.