[SOLVED] Startup Repair vs Restore points

Solution
think he just wants to know what they do.

Startup repair is used to try to fix boot problems, it scans PC for problems and tries to fix them. I haven't seen it succeed very often.

System restore points are associated with System restore (its in the name).
  1. System restore points are a copy of the registry and settings at a their time of creation, you can use them in System restore to roll back driver updates that have gone badly.
  2. can be used to repair errors created when moving windows library folders.
  3. It also records the system state before a windows update so that you can roll back.
You can't use system restore to roll back a Windows version update as system restore points are wiped when you run a version update.
I...

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
think he just wants to know what they do.

Startup repair is used to try to fix boot problems, it scans PC for problems and tries to fix them. I haven't seen it succeed very often.

System restore points are associated with System restore (its in the name).
  1. System restore points are a copy of the registry and settings at a their time of creation, you can use them in System restore to roll back driver updates that have gone badly.
  2. can be used to repair errors created when moving windows library folders.
  3. It also records the system state before a windows update so that you can roll back.
You can't use system restore to roll back a Windows version update as system restore points are wiped when you run a version update.
I wouldn't rely on it if you have problems. Its sort of the last ditch hope to fix a problem.
 
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Solution
Indeed. Thanks.

System Restore is a fairly reliable way to get out of recent jam you find yourself in.........as might be caused by a software installation gone bad. Something you wish you had not done and can't undo quickly by ordinary means. Often something that's occurred quite recently...maybe within the last few minutes.

It's pretty quick. Normally under 5 minutes. I've never had it cause problems. Occasionally it will not run to completion and will throw an error telling you so.

I used it a lot on Win 7. Maybe 50 or 100 times in 5 years or so. Usually helped, never hurt; occasionally runs to completion but doesn't resolve the issue.

Nowhere near as reliable as an image restoration. But sometimes useful because your restore point was from yesterday and your image is from last week.

I have had much less reason to use it on Windows 10. I seem to be getting in fewer jams where it can help, which is a good thing.
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
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My first encounter with it was indeed, when it was first introduced, and it wasn't much good back in ME days. I may have learned it was better to just ignore it back then.

Only times I have used it since was to recover from incorrect drivers being installed. The circumstances of that happening are less I only install drivers from sources I trust. Half battle is working out who to trust. Story of life really.
I often offer it if people have mistakenly made an entire hdd into their Documents folder.
 
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David12846

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Apr 16, 2016
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On my Windows 10 Pro, my Restore Points disappear after 30 minutes. There's plenty of room too (16 percent, 74GB). When they vanish, an Event Viewer entry (Volsnap) says "The oldest shadow copy of volume C: was deleted to allow shadow copies created afterward and marked for delete to be deleted.". I even have a Task set up to create Restore Points. They get created, then vanish 25-30 minutes later. I then created TWO sets of Restore Points. One set disappears in 30 minutes, then the next set disappears 30 minutes later. A few people in another forum have said their Restore Points vanish too. They're wondering if a recent Microsoft Update changed the way Restore Points behave.
 
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David12846

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I do use ccleaner (the free version), but I do not have it set to start when the PC starts-up. There are two options in ccleaner to auto-start the program and both are unchecked.

I've also used the DISM and SFC commands and neither one reported an error.

I also use "EaseUD Todo" to backup my documents, but not the OS. Someone suggested "EaseUS Todo" might remove Restore Points. I removed that program (and hopefully all the remnants of it) but it did not help.

I just want an "easy" way to undo any changes made if a newly installed program misbehaves (like a bad dll file). Unfortunately you often don't know something is broken for weeks until after you run every single program on a PC.