Hi Forum,
The old “System Restore” program for XP was so awesome. It saved me so many times. It seems this doesn’t work the same in Win10.
Is there a program that does what the XP Restore did (for free or paid).
Thanks!
Most people think that System Restore in Vista and later are better than XP.
There are considerable differences between how System Restore works under Windows XP and later Windows versions.
Configuration UI – In Windows XP, there is a graphical slider to configure the amount of disk space allotted to System Restore. In Windows Vista, the GUI to configure the disk space is not available. Using the command-line tool Vssadmin.exe or by editing the appropriate registry key, the space reserved can be adjusted. Starting with Windows 7, the slider is available once again.
Maximum space – In Windows XP, System Restore can be configured to use up to a maximum of 12% of the volume’s space for most disk sizes; however, this may be less depending on the volume’s size. Restore points over 90 days old are automatically deleted, as specified by the registry value RPLifeInterval (Time to Live – TTL) default value of 7776000 seconds. In Windows Vista and later, System Restore is designed for larger volumes. By default, it uses 15% of the volume’s space.
File paths monitored – Up to Windows XP, files are backed up only from certain directories. On Windows Vista and later, this set of files is defined by monitored extensions outside of the Windows folder, and everything under the Windows folder.
File types monitored – Up to Windows XP, it excludes any file types used for users’ personal data files, such as documents, digital photographs, media files, e-mail, etc. It also excludes the monitored set of file types (.DLL, .EXE etc.) from folders such as My Documents. Microsoft recommends that if a user is unsure as to whether certain files will be modified by a rollback, they should keep those files under My Documents. When a rollback is performed, the files that were being monitored by System Restore are restored and newly created folders are removed. However, on Windows Vista and later, it excludes only document file types; it does not exclude any monitored system file type regardless of its location.
Configuring advanced System Restore settings – Windows XP supports customizing System Restore settings via Windows Registry and a file at %windir%\system32\restore\Filelist.xml. Windows Vista and later no longer support this.
FAT32 volume support: On Windows Vista and later, System Restore no longer works on FAT32 disks and cannot be enabled on disks smaller than 1 GB.
Up to Windows XP, the system can be restored as long as it is in an online state, that is, as long as Windows boots normally or from Safe mode. It is not possible to restore the system if Windows is unbootable without using a 3rd-party bootable recovery media such as ERD Commander.
Under Windows Vista and later, the Windows Recovery Environment can be used to launch System Restore and restore a system in an offline state, that is, in case the Windows installation is unbootable. Since the advent of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset from it can be used to create a bootable recovery disc that can log on to an unbootable Windows installation and start System Restores. The toolset includes ERD commander for Windows XP that was previously a 3rd-party product by Wininternals.