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May 27, 2005
Dear CNET members,
Well, I'm back from Disneyland. Since many of you share a little bit of your life with me through your e-mail and community activities, I'd like to share with you a picture that I took of my family with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. As much as my son loves Mickey, he was a bit overwhelmed by his size, so he wanted Mommy to hold him close. Enjoy! Now let's tackle Frances's Windows System Restore issue.
Frances, since there are many possible reasons why your System Restore has run astray, this week's winning answer by James offers a fix based on a few assumptions, such as not having other problems with the computer and that you are running Windows XP with SP1 or SP2 installed. If the method provided doesn't work for you, I've also listed most of our members' submissions in this week's honorable mentions and suggestions from our members section. Hopefully, with all the input from our members, you'll be able to find a solution that will soon solve your problem. If anyone out there has experienced this and was able to solve it, please swing by and post your solution in the discussion area. And if you have a utility to recommend other than Windows System Restore, please share it with us. We'd all appreciate this information! Thanks, everyone!
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Member Question of the Week
I've successfully used System Restore (Windows XP Home edition) on more than one occasion. Suddenly, it won't work for me. The message simply states, "The system cannot restore, no changes have been made to your computer." I've tried different restore points, including dates I set myself. I followed Microsoft's suggestions by going to compmgmt.msc in the control panel (also CMD, net start), checked the view logs in the event viewer, and so on. Nothing has helped. I have more than enough sufficient disk space. Any suggestions?
Submitted by:
Frances P.
Frances, the most likely culprit is that the System Restore folder has been corrupted somehow. Aside from just a simple Microsoft XP glitch, this can happen when the system is shut down (example: power outage, or turning off the power switch) while it's in the process of making a system restore point in the background. Windows creates new restore points periodically or whenever a new program or device is installed. If you installed a new program or device and the system hung, requiring you to forcibly restart the computer, this could have caused...
Submitted by:
James S.
For
James's efforts, we're sending him his choice
efforts, we're sending him his choice of any
Help.com Learning CD.
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Best regards and enjoy!
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Check out next week's question:
Hi, I'm really new to computers and the Internet. I keep hearing people say I should use a firewall on my computer to prevent Web nasties, but I'm confused as to what a firewall is and if it's really absolutely necessary. If you say I need one, which one would you recommend? I want one that I can use and easily understand without pulling out what's left of my hair. Understanding my antivirus app was difficult enough, but I'm always willing to learn new things given a chance. Any advice to a grandpa who's just starting to explorer the computer world is sincerely appreciated.
--Submitted by:
Stanley M.
If you have the answer,
e-mail us at messageboards@cnet.com.
If we choose your response, you'll get a
free Help.com CD.
Have a question?
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How useful do you find the Windows System Restore utility?
(Please click on button to vote) |
 Very useful, it's saved me many times
Somewhat useful (tell us why)
Not useful (tell us why)
I use other system restore
utilities (tell us what you use)
I'd use it more if it worked properly
I have no idea, I've never used it
Last week's poll results
Which company makes the best digital cameras?
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