My wife and I usually make a restore point daily because time goes by and none are made automatically. They have failed before.
I was thinking of backing up the registry also.
I have three options;
1-regedit
2-Tweaking.com's program
3-ccleaner
My health and age prompt me to want o set her up in case, and she is even less experienced than I am.
Which would you teach her to do in case of virus, corrupt download, error, faulty installation etc., if at all?
I have shown her Macrium and system restore.
I was thinking of regedit to desktop and delete daily or to Documents and delete at the end of week.
I would recommend bookmarking this forum!
Honestly, very few are able to deal with the many items that you describe. It's much easier to ask for help from professionals than to Google everything and add confusion to an already confusing situation.
My family & friends usually call me and ask if I have time for a Team Viewer session.
Kind Regards,
John
as is the tool in Shane's All in One repair tool (tweaking.com)
I usually advise ordinary folks to stay out of the Registry and avoid using regedit, unless under the direct guidance of an expert, and to resist the temptation to clean it, optimise it, use specialist tools on it, or do anything with it at all…. except backing it up, or acting under the direct guidance of an expert!
Its you call, of course, but I would resist putting a shortcut to regedit on the desktop…
System Restore is hated by some, (but has assisted many others) so its a personal choice… I always (without exception) have it running protecting the C: drive of my customers computers…..
If System Restore is not running on your computer then unless you or someone has switched it off then there is a problem on your machine that you might like to consider addressing…
When system restore is working properly there is little need to regularly make (manually) Restore points as the system will (should) do this for you)
With todays fairly large size hard drives the disc space required is generally not an issue, but some internet security suites/products sometimes do not "play nicely" with System restore…..
If you have a good size external hard drive (USB) or two handy then taking a disc image(s) verifying it and having a bootable CD that will allow you to access it and reimage if serious trouble strikes that cannot be resolved in a timely or cost effective way by the usual means can prove a wise investment.
If you take an image (call it image uno) when your machine is running fast and sweet, fully updated, all protections in force, free from virus, undesirable elements, junk files and unnecessary stuff removed, and defragged etc. this would be your "get out of Jail card"
Then take another one (image two)…. and then perform "incremental" images for it at suitable intervals (daily weekly or ad hoc) this will keep the incremental file size a lot smaller and make your external hard drive "last longer" before coming too full (the incremental files sizes are tiny in comparison to the original full image because the increments only record the changes in files, folders settings etc that have taken place.
If you use some disc imaging applications they will allow you to set up a schedule where these incremental images are performed automatically at certain timed intervals ( if you wish)
Other folks just do an incremental image at the end of each day, week or other period according to the work done on the computer; and when their external hard drive is getting say half full or three quarters full, take another full disc image and then delete all the previous incremental disc images together with image two… this approach works well for some folks as it protects the position and frees up space on the external hard drives…
Some folks like to have their hard drive partitioned so there is just one partition with Windows, all their applications, and their data files on it…….whereas others like their data on a separate partition (there is some merit in this latter situation) Disc images can then be taken of just the C drive for example and other means used to back up the data partition…..
I will not go into further details as I don't wish to complicate matters further but if you need extra explanation, John or I, or one of the other technicians will be pleased to respond.
Regards
paws
Yes, thank you both. I have Win 8 so I think Tweaks' registry backup is good. Erunt might be hard for Win 8?
She makes a restore point each am as we have waited over a week with no registry change and an automatic point was not created.
So she has system restore at least, manually.
I have shown her how to use regedit for just a new install or something like that but to delete the icon at the end of the day.
I don't know if this is sound from what you wrote.
I have images and keep showing her how to recover with the disc. The rest would be a matter of updating as I doubt I can set up incremental images,neither could she create an image. I will try to show her though.
We are both working on that.
Team Viewer is a great idea and thank goodness she has a friend who, in a pinch, could help.
We both certainly appreciate the advice and support.
I told her to come to this forum for help and it is bookmarked.
Let's hope I keep writing and not her Thank you again.
I agree with Paws in regards to system restore. It should be making restore points automatically. This is plenty suitable for undoing minor problems and is probably the best option for backing up the registry. System restore is smart - it only makes backups when it has to. If you aren't changing your system around, adding and removing programs, installing updates, etc. there is no need for a restore point.
A good registry backup means nothing without the program files to go along with it. Let the system do what it was designed to do and keep system restore turned on and backing up which can restore both registry settings and system files in case of trouble. The problem with putting too much weight into a registry backup alone is that there will rarely ever be a case when the registry was changed or corrupted and system files or program files were not. If you restore the registry and not the deleted or changed program files you've just corrupted your system. If you uninstall a program, then perform a system restore, does it restore the program? NO, it does not. The program's registry entries will be put back into the registry, the icons may be placed back in the start menu, the program may show back up in add/remove programs - but, it is completely corrupt now because the program files are still gone and you probably won't even be able to reinstall the software properly. So, if I haven't made my point yet - a registry backup is pretty useless and your best bet of it being of any value is when used with system restore. Instead, backup your system with a proper backup program on a daily basis so you can restore BOTH the registry and program/system files to a consistent state prior to a problem or crash.
If you have Windows 7 or newer it has all the tools built in to create system images and regular backups to an external drive in case you need to restore. Its almost too easy now a days. I've seen complete amateurs setup an external hard drive in Windows 7 and have daily backups going to it then bring in a crashed computer with a bad hard drive to us along with their backup drive. We put in a new hard drive and the windows 7 installation disc automatically finds the backup and restores the system like the day before it crashed. Alternatively, you can create a system recovery disc with the Windows backup program so you don't have to use a Windows installation disc.
I am reluctant to reply for seeming blunt.
I use Macrium to the best of my ability which is not as thorough as you would do..
Defender is updating daily and occasionally programs are removed or added so we have been creating points daily.
I will not create and points and just hope that system restore does create a point I can use in case I need it.
Trying.
As long as Macrium gives you point in time snapshots of your computer that you can restore a full system image from then you are doing about the best you can. Just make sure to test the process occasionally and make sure you really can restore from it properly. That's a little hard with a system image because it has to overwrite your existing hard drive with the image - so in order to test you might need to slap a different test hard drive in the computer temporarily. I've just seen Windows backup work very well, and because it is a native product built-in it would be my suggestion if someone asked.
It should be scheduled in a way that it runs daily. But, even as I review the restore points on my computer I do not have daily restore points even when the task is running successfully every day. So, I'm sorry, I can't explain further why there aren't daily restore points - but I do see restore points every couple of days for "Windows Updates." The computer I am on sits idle for days/weeks at a time and windows update is set to notify only so I can only assume those are the security essentials updates.
Thank you again.
