What exactly does "system restore" restore? I know it's purpose, but what does it actually do?

Question

I'm completely unclear about what exactly the "restore" restores. I've used it a couple of times and it did as intended, but I've also used it a couple of times and it failed miserably. For example, I somehow got my explorer.exe replaced with a version that doesn't show the desktop or explore. I've "system restored" it with no results so I'm not impressed with that. Someone has "borrowed" the CD so I'm stuck using task manager to start tasks - and that is a real PAIN! Any info is appreciated.

Answer 1

System Restore is something that you can restore to your computer to the last restore date. Say you installed a program in December well your computer will create a restore point so if you need to restore your computer it will be at the point of you installing the program. So now its January, you got a really nasty virus that is killing your computer, so you want to do a system restore to the last restore date which was December, when you click on December it will restore to your computer to what it was like in December and the virus you got in January will be gone.

Bad thing about the system restore is that if you delete all your restore points and you get a virus you can't restore your computer because there are no restore points to restore your computer back to the way it was before you got the virus.

Answer 2

System Restore's purpose is to return your system to a workable state without requiring a complete reinstallation and without compromising your data files. The utility runs in the background and automatically creates a restore point when a trigger event occurs. Trigger events include application installations, AutoUpdate installations, Microsoft Backup Utility recoveries, unsigned- driver installations, and manual creations of restore points. The utility also creates restore points once a day by default.