Question How To Cancel Windows 11 "Return To Last Page Displayed"?

[Wolkie 72]

And return my rig to its default setting. Right now I'm having to use the CTRL and F4 keys, but why can't I reset my machine to the way it was before I messed it up? Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

but why can't I reset my machine to the way it was before I messed it up? Thanks

Thats called a Restore Point, or (preferably) a full drive Image made before you did whatever it was you did.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Sorry, to be late checking back in, but the attempt of "Restore" got me a blue screen which read: "Your computer made a mistake and needs to restart, we will restart for you." - Waited --- And Waited --- No restart.

I tried multiple times, dates, but nothing, and then I happened upon the screen which would restore my Windows 11, but cause me to lose all my files. I have my files backed up on an external hard drive, so I went for it.

Fast forward --- it worked, and got all my sites back up, got my music - except for the cassettes I uploaded with Audacity - don't know what happened to them; and my pictures are gone. All pictures files are empty. Luckily I have those stored on Photobucket, and I have many cd's from back in the day, which I can load that have those pictures on them.

Still trying to figure out what I did wrong, though. Maybe my System Restore didn't go back far enough? Should I just be creating them so I will have something older if this happens again?

Thanks
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 55 °C
Raphael 5nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 2399MHz (38-38-38-70)
Motherboard
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. PRO B650-P WIFI (MS-7D78) (AM5) 41 °C
Graphics
E321VL (1920x1080@60Hz)
4089MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (Gigabyte) 38 °C
512MB ATI AMD Radeon Graphics (MSI)
SLI Disabled
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
931GB KINGSTON SNV2S1000G (SATA-2 (SSD))
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 2621 USB Device (USB (SSD))
Optical Drives
ASUS SDRW-08V1M-U USB Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

 

[USAFRet]

One of the many reasons I don't rely on Restore Points for a real "go back" situation.

 

[Wolkie 72]

USAFRet, you're one of the reasons I always ask my questions here , sp could you please tell me how you would handle this? I saw you mention an "image" back up. What does that require, and how to get into it when the rig acts like mine did? Windows 11, like many other of their products seems like it carries that "Aw, it's good enough" "waiver" with the hopes they'll find some kind of "fix" by the time some poor turkey (me) comes up on that problem. I did look up that blue screen notice, however, and it appears I'm not the only one who won the "Booby Prize". Thank you, Sir.

 

[USAFRet]

USAFRet, you're one of the reasons I always ask my questions here , sp could you please tell me how you would handle this? I saw you mention an "image" back up. What does that require, and how to get into it when the rig acts like mine did? Windows 11, like many other of their products seems like it carries that "Aw, it's good enough" "waiver" with the hopes they'll find some kind of "fix" by the time some poor turkey (me) comes up on that problem. I did look up that blue screen notice, however, and it appears I'm not the only one who won the "Booby Prize". Thank you, Sir.

I use Macrium Reflect.

Full drive Images, off to some other device.

My systems are on all an automated schedule. Each system and/or physical drive on its own.

For instance, my HTPC, once a week.
My main system, each drive individually, every night.

Keep Incremental images for 30 days. I can return any drive to the state it was any day in the last month.

And I have had to recover using that.
Once, a SATA SSD, just...dead. Click click, all 605GB recovered exactly as it was at 4AM when the nmightly Incremental ran.

My C drive a few months ago, after a nasty piece of software also installed a bunch of malware.
Couldn't get rid of all of it, so the easiest solution was...recovering from last nights Incremental.

The first post here is an older version of my routine:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

Even though it still goes to that NAS box, no RAID involved.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Macriu m Reflect is not a free option for me, and being on a fixed income, that is important. Is there anything out there that's similar and simple? At 74 and with cognitive issues, the simpler the better. Thanks again, sir!

 

[USAFRet]

Macriu m Reflect is not a free option for me, and being on a fixed income, that is important. Is there anything out there that's similar and simple? At 74 and with cognitive issues, the simpler the better. Thanks again, sir!

Right.
Macrium Reflect is no longer free.
The same with all the other similar options.

But this is one of those applciations that is actually worth the money. But if you can't, you can't.

And all the others are of similar 'complexity'.

 

[USAFRet]

For a 'free' alternative, look into Veeam
https://www.veeam.com/products/free/backup-recovery.html

I've not used it, but it looks good. No idea about its complexity, though.

 

[Wolkie 72]

Thanks. yeah at my age I'm more Mr. "What Does The Cow Say?" than Mr. "Boot From Safe Mode". Right now I'm just creating system restore points, and hoping Windows 11 gets its act together soon.

One of the options on that blue screen was something like "Delete Last Windows Updates?" I din't choose that one, because I figured it was time to stop digging the hole I may not be able to climb out of, but it set me wondering, how can one tell when Windows Updates are corrupt to one's system and stay away from them? And why have that option at all, if an update is supposed to make one's rig run better?

That should probably be a rhetorical question.

 

[USAFRet]

how can one tell when Windows Updates are corrupt to one's system and stay away from them?

You can't, really.

Microsoft doesn't even really like System Restore....😉

 

[lantis3]

Alternatives

https://www.ubackup.com/backup-restore/clonezilla-automated-backup-1021.html

However personally I only backup data and I'll use portable apps (most from portableapps.com ) on an external usb drive as much as possible so I don't have to reinstall most apps when system has a problem.

 

[Wolkie 72]

I went to your link, and read, but couldn't make heads nor tails about using "Clonezilla" or not using it. The whole thing - in the beginning - sounds like it's something to stay away from. Now, it could be that it was just written poorly and one has to read all the way through about Clonezilla before one makes up one's mind about "Back-Up Restore", but all it did for me was create doubt. Sorry but at my age I just need something that I can use which won't come back and bite me in the form of money I have to spend to get my rig back to where it should be.

Thank you, Iantis3

 

[USAFRet]

I went to your link, and read, but couldn't make heads nor tails about using "Clonezilla" or not using it. The whole thing - in the beginning - sounds like it's something to stay away from. Now, it could be that it was just written poorly and one has to read all the way through about Clonezilla before one makes up one's mind about "Back-Up Restore", but all it did for me was create doubt. Sorry but at my age I just need something that I can use which won't come back and bite me in the form of money I have to spend to get my rig back to where it should be.

Thank you, Iantis3

CloneZilla is likely more complex than Macrium.

 

[lantis3]

DiskGenius free edition's OS Migration

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q4ryWrAWSQ


or MiniTool Partition Wizard's Copy disk

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2epSegC_jek