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start the System Restore Wizard by choosing Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore. Then select the first radio button, Restore my computer to an earlier time, and click Next. Figure 17-51 shows a calendar with restore points. Any day with a boldface date has at least one restore point. These points are created after you add or remove software or install Windows updates and during the normal shutdown of your computer. Select a date on the calendar, then select a restore point from the list on the right and click Next.

Figure 17-51 Calendar of restore points

The last screen before the system is restored shows a warning. It advises you to close all open programs and reminds you that Windows will shut down during the restore process. It also states that the restore operation is completely reversible. Thus, if you go too far back in time, you can restore to a more recent date.

You don’t have to count on the automatic creation of restore points. You can open System Restore at any time and simply select Create a restore point. Consider doing this before making changes that might not trigger an automatic restore point, such as directly editing the Registry.

System Restore is turned on by default and uses some of your disk space to save information on restore points. To turn System Restore off or change the disk space usage, open the System Properties applet in Control Panel and select the System Restore tab (Figure 17-52).

Figure 17-52 System Restore tab in System Properties applet

Installing Recovery Console

When things get really bad on a Windows system, you need to turn to the Recovery Console. The Recovery Console is a text-based startup of Windows that gets you to a command prompt similar to the Windows command prompt.

If you have the Windows 2000/XP CD-ROM, you can start the Recovery Console by running Setup, selecting Repair, and then selecting Recovery Console. If you like to be proactive, however, you can install the Recovery Console on your hard drive so that it is one of your startup options and does not require the Windows 2000 or XP CD-ROM to run. The steps to do this in Windows 2000 and Windows XP are very nearly identical.

First, you need to log into the system with the Administrator account. Grab your Windows 2000 or XP installation CD-ROM and drop it in your system. If the Autorun function kicks in, just click the No button. To install the Recovery Console and make it a part of your startup options, click the Start button, select Run, and type the following:

d:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons

If your CD-ROM drive uses a different drive letter, substitute it for the D: drive. Then just follow the instructions on the screen. If you are connected to the Internet, allow the Setup program to download updated files. From now on, every time the system boots, the OS selection menu will show your Windows OS (Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP) and the Microsoft Windows Recovery Console. It may also show other choices if yours is a multi-boot computer.

System Recovery Options

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have dropped the Recovery Console, replacing it with the graphical System Recovery Options. System Recovery Options is on the Vista/7 installation media, and you run it by booting to the media as though you were installing Windows. When you boot from the installation media, choose your language settings, click Next, select Repair your computer and then click Next a second time to see the System Recovery Options menu, as shown in Figure 17-53. The System Recover Options Menu has a number of items, each designed to help in a particular situation.

Figure 17-53 System Recovery Options in Windows Vista

Startup Repair Startup Repair should be your first choice when running System Recovery. This option tells Windows to attempt to repair your system automatically. Startup Repair rebuilds all of your most important system files, which in most cases will at least enable you to get Windows to boot. If Startup Repair doesn’t work, hope you made some system restore points!

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