[Rivera42]

The situation: A reasonably new PC, clean and working properly. Several new programs are installed, including Firefox, Winamp, desktop publishing, photo manager, and security software (not the antivirus, standalone scanners.) Everything appears to be fine.
I log on to Windows Live OneCare to use their "Safety Scanner" to, as they say, check for PC health issues and optimize performance. Mind you, the site recommends users log on once a month for the full service scan. As you know, the scan includes the removal of what it refers to as invalid registry entries. "Oh boy," right? The registry. Except you'd like to believe the official Microsoft site won't screw up your programs.

What happened is, I allowed the safety scanner to do its thing, and for the most part the computer didn't appear to mind. However, at least one of the programs I installed before doing the scan has been crashing lately. Not every time I run it, but almost every other time. So far as I can tell, the other programs seem to be working.

What I need to know is this. After having installed all this software, is it in any way reasonable to use System Restore to put the computer back to its original restore point? Or possibly the most recent restore point before the scan? I could send it back to either one of these, but should I? What happens to programs that have been installed following the time any given restore point is set? Should I just forget the whole thing and move forward?

I kind of like the idea of an automated PC tune up, but only on the condition that it actually works and doesn't require little ol' me to track and reverse its helpfulness.

[zabusant]

Restoring your PC to the point right before the scan would be ideal. The programs installed after the restore point will not function (after restoring), but your personal files will stay intact.

And even if you decide to do it, you can just as simply undo it, so there's no real concearn. I suggest restoring it to the point before the scan and testing if the program works fine.

[Rivera42]

So I would need to be able to reinstall everythingI've added since the scan? What else will I need to look out for?

How is it that Microsoft advises people to use this scanner on a monthly basis? I mean, considering the sort of trouble that can arise from careless registry tinkering, what, if anything, can be inferred from their suggestion to scan like this?

The restore point is listed as "Cleaned registry with OneCare scanner" ... am I to assume this means it will revert back to just before said cleaning took place? And does this affect codecs?

[zabusant]

Oh, I assumed this just happened. If you've installed much since then, it's not really that good of an idea. Much easier to reinstall the program that's bugging you - since otherwise you will need to reinstall everything installed after that point.

I don't know what to tell you, automated registry "cleaners" are always risky, even from Microsoft.

Yes, that would be the restore point to use (but don't unless you only wan't to test-drive it). It will affect codecs.

[techkid]

I agree with zabusant on this one. If you've installed other programs since this "clean up", then you're better off just uninstalling and reinstalling the troubled program.

[Rivera42]

I've performed a total of two OneCare scans. The first of the two removed something upward of 200 detected registry entries, however I not only didn't notice any problems, but I could have sworn it actually improved the speed. The only reason I'd gone for the scan at that point is that after putiing in a smorgasbord of new software, this new machine actually seemed to be slowing down a little. When I ran the scan, things appeared to return to normal.

The following day, at the end of my work session, I returned to the scanner and let it remove the five entries it claimed to detect. At that point, I hadn't made any significant system changes or new installs. Following this second scan, I noticed that certain programs, notably Adobe Lightroom, experienced frequent crashes.

Within the past day or so, I applied a Lightroom update and have not experienced any difficulty using this application, in fact I left it open for several hours while the system was unattended and when I resumed my work, I did not encounter any trouble.

Still, in the back of my mind, I feel like I should revert back to just before that second scan. It was only a couple of days ago, and I've only installed VLC Media Player since that time, or possibly that plus WinPatrol, I disremember. But say for the sake of argument I had installed WinPatrol AFTER that second scan. Is there any way to predict what effect a Restore might have on the functioning of that software?

Please note, my system scans clean for malware at Eset, Trend Micro, Panda and Ewido, and also scans clean using AdAware, Avast, A-Squared, Norton Spyware Scan, AVERT Stinger, CA/Yahoo! Anti-Spy 2, Spybot SD and Windows Defender and is inoculated with SpywareBlaster. All programs appear to be working properly.

[zabusant]

Originally Posted by Rivera42

Is there any way to predict what effect a Restore might have on the functioning of that software?

Yup, it will stop working, absolutely

But, since it can be undone, you can give it a go and see for yourself

[Rivera42]

On reflection, I realized I did install WinPatrol subsequent to that restore point. Can you tell me anything about the settings imposed by this program? Should I reset everything and uninstall before I attempt a System Restore, and then reinstall?

In the "Community" section of the OneCare scanner, Microsoft has posted the following advice:

http://boards.live.com/safetyboards/...?threadid=4867

which I believe is intended to circumvent the need for System Restore. I'm going to give this a try first. I'm pretty sure I'd be happier returning things to the point they were at in between the first scan and the second; if I can bring this about without doing any damage so much the better.

[Elvandil]

It won't hurt to just try it. Part of the restore process is to create a backup of the way your system is right now. So, if the restore succeeds, you actually have more options--keep it, roll back to pre-restore state, or pick a different one. So it won't hurt to try.

[Rivera42]

Elsewhere in the same forums, I found this link
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...r-Cleanup.html
which describes initiating the procedure via the command line.
To be clear, would I be wise to use the OneCare restore file before trying a System Restore, per se?

My other concern with this relates to WinPatrol. I have used it to move some non-essential startup programs to the delayed start. Should I leave things the way they are with WinPatrol and the changes I've had it make?

[Rivera42]

I can't do it from the command line.

As advised in the Winhelponline link to
"Click Start, Run and type:
%AppData%\Windows Live Safety Center\BackUp"
I get an error message "Windows cannot find C:\Documents" Make sure I typed it correctly and blahdeblah.

Windows Explorer confirms that there is a WLSC folder, but I don't see any .reg files, just .dll's and a History folder with two files in it. These files have names consisting of random letters and numbers within brackets, and are classified as simply "file."
There are XML files, but nothing to indicate these are registry-backup-related.

"Show hidden files and folders" was enabled for this, and still nothing. In fact, I don't believe there were any hidden files or folders in there.

Browsing the Microsoft boards isn't setting my mind at ease either; even the mod (or whoever he is) that posted the links I cited has reservations about the registry service. What I'm really dreading is that if I choose to proceed without rolling back to a pre-scan state, some time after these restore points are deleted I discover some little niche feature of an application I seldom use depended on one of the missing keys and I can't reinstall the application. That's something I'd be taking a chance on.

If I could just figure out what effect this would have on WinPatrol, I think I'd be willing to do a System Restore to the point before I noticed Lightroom crashing. Oh, one more thing - how do I reverse a restoration back to the oriiginal state before I restored anything?

[redoak]

"R- -42": You say,"What I'm really dreading is that if I choose to proceed without rolling back to a pre-scan state, some time after these restore points are deleted I discover some little niche feature of an application I seldom use depended on one of the missing keys and I can't reinstall the application."

You have put your finger on a point that many folks don't realize when they confidently use a Registry cleaner because there is a backup.

{redoak}

[Rivera42]

Is there any way to copy Restore Points to another folder for possible use in the future?

[Elvandil]

Possible, but very complicated. There are log entries and probably registry entries that would also need to be discovered and duplicated. I suspect there is probably some security, also. I've tried, but gave up since there are many better solutions, like drive imaging. But ERD2005 seems to be able to restore old points without reference to previous logs and the registry.

[Rivera42]

Before I go ahead and perform a Restore, should I uninstall whatever's been installed since the time the restore point was set, and then reinstall? Or just leave em?