List of files that System Restore monitors

The exception is any file in the My Documents folder(s) regardless of file type.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sr/sr/monitored_file_extensions.asp

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks Charles...

Good info to know.

 

Thank you, Charles! You know how I love lists!

Johanna

 

charlesvar,

What does "monitors" mean in this context? Save or back-up in "restore point "?
That's over 450 file types!!

 

You're wlecome Johanna, I like lists too. Now we can all read off the same page when a SR and what it restores issue comes up .




Sparrow,

Save (are you making a distinction between "save" and "backup "?). The effect is if I downloaded file(s) with those extensions being monitored today, and had to do a restore back to yesterday because of some problem, they would be gone. Same holds true of versions. If I lost/deleted a file, I'll get it back.

MS to their credit gave an out by excluding the My Documents folder(s). This underscores the importance of backing up with removable media.

Regards - Charles

EDIT: Forgot to say that most of these file types are in the OS - the primary function of SR is to "guard" the OS.

The file type that affects users the most, I think, are .exe files.

 

charlesvar,

You could (and I do) say save produces one file, the possibly modified original, while back-up possibly produces two, the (modified?) original and at least one (unchanged?) copy, depending on the mechanics of backing up.

It seems to me that SR must back up all those files; e.g., if you go back to yesterday, your newly added file is gone, but it has to be backed up anyway because you have the option to return to today, right? That could be an enormous volume of files.

I just object to meaningless generalizations like "monitors" when I think M$ should be more specific, and explain what they mean. It sounds to me as if they mean "back up ". Monitoring is obviously one step, but only one.

 

"I just object to meaningless generalizations like "monitors" when I think M$ should be more specific, and explain what they mean. It sounds to me as if they mean "back up ". Monitoring is obviously one step, but only one. "

If you select the item on the left called "About System Restore" it's a little more clear.

"System Restore monitors system changes and saves the system state as a restore point "

 

I don't have that option in the frames pointed to by charlesvar's URL. The options there just point to code snippets.

 

Sparrow

From Charles' link:
Monitoring the System
System Restore monitors a core set of system and application files, archiving the states of these files before system changes are made. System Restore also saves a full snapshot of the registry and some dynamic system files. When System Restore detects that the user is not actively using the computer, it compresses the registry and any file copies made.


System Restore requires a minimum of 200 MB of free disk space on the system drive at installation. When the amount of free disk space falls below 50 MB on any drive, System Restore switches to standby mode and stops creating restore points. All restore points are deleted at that time. System Restore reactivates and resumes creating restore points as soon as 200 MB of disk space is free on the system drive.

The files that are monitored or excluded from monitoring are specified in the file %windir%\system32\restore\Filelist.xml. For more information, see Monitored File Extensions.
*******************************************************
This additional info is a cut-n-paste from Zander:

If you turn off system restore and turn it back on and it works again, the reason is because one of your restore points is corrupt. If you try to restore your computer to 3 days ago and if one of the restore points made between now and three days ago happens to be corrupted, the restore will fail. It needs to have all restore points between today and the day you're trying to restore to. This is because each time system restore makes a restore point it only backs up the changes that were made since the last restore point was made. (Emphasis mine)*******************************************************
and me- same thread
XP will start giving you errors about "not enough free space" on the OS partition if it falls below 25%. Because, as Zander pointed out, the Points are cumulative, rather than successive complete sets, SR really doesn't require a lot of space. The space you allocate depends on how far back you want to preserve valid points. As needed, XP will dump older for newer, once the space you have given SR is full.
*******************************************************

Win9X users seem overly concerned with space used. With today's HUGE hard drives, who cares? I have SR points going back to April. Will I ever use them? No. Will I take the time to delete them? No. XP will do it for me (oldest first) as it needs the room. SR was not designed to be a "fix ", it was meant to protect the computer from poorly written software and incompatible drivers, etc. To quote CharlesVar:

Johanna

 

Sparrow ...

Try here.

What's just as interesting is what's specifically excluded ... open the hidden file C:\Windows\System32\Restore\filelist.xml for the details.

Sorry, Johanna, you beat me to it, so your hand/wrist must be completely healed by now. ???

 

Yes, agreed, that's what makes the "undo last restore" option possible.

Surely you're used to "MS Speak" by now

The problem may be: MS reqiures the Admin.. approved ActiveX to be be enabled or prompted. I need that on for Updates.

Regards - Charles

 

Johanna, JSS3rd, and Charles,

Thanks for showing me what I'm missing using Mozilla 1.7. I have activeX 9 and have not disabled it, so far as I can tell, and the frames look normal but their contents vary from what you see. I've never programmed activeX, so I don't understand why the contents should be so different. I'm used to seeing a message when I haven't had some programming language interpreter available.

I have been able to get windows upgrades without any problem I'm aware of, although I've had problems with some of the upgrades.

"Surely you're used to "MS Speak" by now " Yes and no, that's the point of this rant. I'm tired of it; e.g.,

I must say, after reading this type of garbage, I don't know any more than I did before.

 

Sparrow ...

I'm using Firefox 0.8+, which shouldn't be that much different from Mozilla 1.7. I didn't find MS's info about SR that easy to navigate, and it was only by chance that I stumbled on the page I provided the link to.

BTW, I quite agree with you about MS's "doublespeak ". I guess they figure that if we're willing to pay the big bucks for their software we deserve no better.

 

Light dawns slower some days.

ok, I see I have to go up a level to see what you see. It sounded like you were looking at chas' url.

 

May have been covered somewhere before, but good SR stuff here. http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/libra...y/en-us/dnwxp/html/windowsxpsystemrestore.asp And from there, something that has brought much discussion in the past, how often are restore points (supposed to be ) created?

And another snippet.

More on SR here. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmb_tol_fngj.asp

 

Let's have more signed authored articles.

noahdfear,

Thank you. Very good.
Signed articles are certainly an improvement on the anonymous ones..