Effect of WD System Restore Checkpoints

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Guest

I read below that version 1 of WD created lots of System Restore Checkpoints,
and so does this version. I'm new to this stuff, but have had LOTS of
problems with System Restore (getting it to work, that is, but I digress).
My question is, what are the Checkpoints doing and what is the negative
impact of creating so many checkpoints each day?
 
Hello Guyster,

When you have some time, read here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/mcgill1.mspx

http://windows.about.com/od/performancetopics/l/aa020127a.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.mspx

http://dozleng.com/internetsecurity/?p=72

You have the option to delete all but the latest restore point from your
machine or delete all the restore points on your machine. To do this:

To delete all but the latest restore point on your machine by using the disk
cleanup utility: Go to 'Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools >
Disk Cleanup'. Click on the more options tab and then click 'Clean up' in the
System Restore box.

For the benefit of the community reading this post, please rate the pºst.

I hope this post is helpful.

Let us know how it works ºut.

Еиçеl
 
Guyster said:
what is the negative impact of creating so many checkpoints each day?
Click to expand...

Microsoft's advice if Defender causes problems is to uninstall it and if
necessary use system restore (i.e. restore to a checkpoint made before
Defender was installed). But because Defender generates so many checkpoints,
and because there's a limit on the number of restore points you can have (due
to limited space allocated), old restore points will disappear as new ones
are added. How fast this happens depends on how rapidly Defender is making
new ones.

On my system, so many checkpoints were being made that after about two weeks
I would have no 'old' restore points left. They would all have been replaced
by Defender checkpoints. This would mean that if I decided Defender was
causing too many issues, I would no longer be able to restore my system to a
pre-Defender state. So I switched off the real time protection, and it will
stay off until this bug is fixed.

Engel's advice will remove all those excess Defender checkpoints. But it
will also remove all your pre-Defender restore points, so you'll lose that
(for me, necessary) safeguard, and won't be able to follow Microsoft's advice
if you decide Defender is causing too many problems.

(Are you an AOL user, by any chance? I believe nearly all my excess Defender
checkpoints were being made as a result of a conflict between Defender and an
AOL driver.)
 
Hi Guyster,

A solution for these restore points is this:

Steve Dodson has posted a registry edit to change this behavior.
----------
In the registry editor,

Create a "REG_DWORD" Key named "DisableRestorePoint" and set it to TRUE
under the following location in the registry.

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows Defender/Scan/
--------------------------------------
This needs a little interpretation:

1) find the location named above.
2) Highlight the Scan object, and right click it, choose permissions,
and give your user FULL.
3) create a value as instructed above, and set it to "1."
4) reverse your action in 2)--uncheck Full for your user.

Regards >*< TOM >*<

Guyster schreef:
 
Hi Alan,

Not an AOL user.

Thanks for the detailed information / education. I'm a bit new at this...

Interesting, but today it only has put on 1 restore point, but Tuesday, 5.
Guess I'm going to keep a close eye on this one.

Thanks,
Guyster
 
Guyster said:
Interesting, but today it only has put on 1 restore point, but Tuesday, 5.
Guess I'm going to keep a close eye on this one.
Click to expand...

Guyster, take a look in the Defender History log, and compare the times of
any events you see there with the times of the Defender checkpoints that are
being made in System Restore. In my case it seems that at least two thirds of
the Defender checkpoints were being generated as a result of a conflict with
an AOL driver. You may find in your case that Defender is conflicting with
some other program - possibly one that runs at startup.

I now see that someone has posted today (07 July 06), I'm sorry to say, with
exactly the problem I predicted - he uninstalled Defender, and found that
'normal' automatic system restore checkpoints have stopped working. But he
can't restore to an earlier state because all he has left are Defender
checkpoints.
 
Hi Alan,

I looked at my history as you advised and with one exception (PowerReg
Scheduler) , all the "Programs and actions" and "Alert Levels" are unknown.
There are not as many history entries as there are check points.

Since 7/4/2006 there have been 8 history entries and 13 checkpoints created.

On 7/3 there were 7 history entries and 2 checkpoints. That's the night I
installed.

Does any of this give you ideas?

Guyster
 
Hi Tom,

I have seen this solution around the community, but like many, I am
(wrongly?) afraid of working in the registry. I've had terrible results
using System Restore and the thought of potentially having to reinstall an OS
due to my blunder is too daunting. I know this sounds wimpy, but at least I
hear that from others around these threads.

Thanks for the suggestion, though...
 
Guyster said:
Hi Tom,

I have seen this solution around the community, but like many, I am
(wrongly?) afraid of working in the registry. I've had terrible results
using System Restore and the thought of potentially having to reinstall an OS
due to my blunder is too daunting. I know this sounds wimpy, but at least I
hear that from others around these threads.

Thanks for the suggestion, though...
Click to expand...

I agree about avoiding registry editing, if you 1) can't do it with
reasonable confidence, and 2) haven't made a registry backup first that
you know how to use to restore your registry, if necessary. However,
that said, I can also say that the reg edit that Tom suggested worked
perfectly for me.
 
Guyster said:
Since 7/4/2006 there have been 8 history entries and 13 checkpoints created.

On 7/3 there were 7 history entries and 2 checkpoints. That's the night I
installed.

Does any of this give you ideas?
Click to expand...

Sadly, there's no clear pattern there, is there (as there was in my case)?
But the good news is that according to Joe Faulhaber's comments in another
thread, Microsoft are on the case and are going to fix this issue (although
it seems that they still don't understand where all the checkpoints are
coming from).

About the registry edit - I can't think of anything more likely to create
havoc than a bunch of inexperienced people like me trying to fix Defender by
attempting a registry edit. Far, far better, in my view, to just switch off
real time protection until the bug is fixed.
 
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