System Restore - Windows' Magic Bullet

Leaving your machine in the capable hands of an expert, you return home and wait. Two weeks later, you receive a call telling you that the demon is gone and your machine is ready to be picked up.

Returning to the shop, you find your computer parked on the counter, seemingly in the same place you left it a fortnight earlier. The shopkeeper assures you that after a monumental battle with your machine [something akin to the D-Day Landings], he/she has managed to get it working and, keeping a perfectly straight face, charges you 200 Euros.

Back home, you cannot help but wonder if 200 Euros isn’t a bit much.

So… let’s take a quick look at what happened to your machine after you left it at the computer shop.

Once you are gone, the shopkeeper takes your computer off the counter and moves it into the workshop, where it is placed in a corner and left to its own devices for two weeks. On Day 14, the shopkeeper notices it and says  something like: “Oh Sh*t! I forgot about that!”

Plugging your computer into a monitor, keyboard and mouse on the workbench, he/she then proceeds to carry out a ‘System Restore’ as follows:

In ‘Windows XP’, click the ‘Start’ button, at the bottom left of your screen. Now click on ‘All Programs’ and from there, move your cursor over ‘Accessories’ and then ‘System Tools’. Now click on ‘System Restore’.

In the Window which pops up, be sure to select ‘Restore my Computer to an earlier time’, and click ‘Next’. The following screen shows a calender, with the highlighted dates representing ‘Restore Points’ which can be used to rewind the clock on your computer. Select a date [before the time of the fault], click ‘Next’ then ‘Next’ again, and your machine will restore itself to the date in question without losing or affecting any files you’ve been working on*.

200 Euros? Nice work if you can get it...

*It should be noted that most minor Windows faults and defects can be cured this way. For bigger things, you’re still at the shopkeeper’s mercy… for now.