(Published Online: 1st March 2007)
Consider this scenario.
1. You're
working on your PC, and suddenly the power goes out + your
UPS starts beeping. You keep working a while hoping the power
will soon be be turned back on. But it's not. So you initiate
the Windows XP shut down via the START button.
2.
Window's XP's shutdown routine seems to take unusually long
this time, and your UPS' beeps get longer. You decide to push
- and hold - the system's Power Switch to shut it down manually.
3.
2 hours later power supply is restored. You push the power
button and your system boots up. At some stage during Windows
XP's loading, you see a message, "Cannot locate your
profile... - may have been corrupted.."
4.
In summary, Windows goes ahead to load a "default"
profile.
5. When
you look at your desktop you instantly think someone played
a trick on you by swopping your system with a new one. All
your personal desktop settings are gone. Shortcut icons for
software you installed + files + other programs on your Windows
START popup menu are gone. And worse, you browse your system
folder and find the familiar folder names, hierarchies etc
gone!
6. You
realize it will take hours - even days - to return your settings
to what they were - and that for those you will be able to
remember.
7.
Out of desperation, you re-boot your system but it loads the
"NEW IMPROVED" :-) profile again - complete with
the barebones desktop!
A SOLUTION!
While running possible ideas through
your mind, you recall an article you read describing certain
unique features of Windows XP as it entered the market. And
then it strikes you! There just might be a way of getting
your system back to normal without any hassles - in fact with
only a few mouse clicks!!
So, you desperately try to recall the
name of the Windows XP feature and come up with "System
Restore". Not getting any more help from your memory,
you decide to let the PC do the rest.
1. You
click on the Windows START button and click on the "Help
and Support" menu item question mark icon (?).
2. An
all-blue Windows XP "Help and Support Center" Interface
fills your PC monitor. Your eyes are quickly drawn to the
white patch text entry field labelled "Search"
3.
Using your mouse you click (with pounding heart and shaky
fingers) in the search field and type "System Restore".
4.
Within a few seconds another blue window opens with the results
of your search displayed. You hungrily scroll down the list
of results (each having the phrase in it) till you get to
the one that says "Run the System Restore Wizard"
- a most likely route to quick resolution of your problem
your brain tells you!
5.
You click on the link and yet another all-blue window - this
time titled "System Restore" - opens with some introductory
description of System Restore and its use(s), part of which
reads:
"You can use System Restore
to undo harmful changes to your computer and restore its settings
and performance. System Restore returns your computer to an
earlier time (called a restore point) without causing you
to lose recent work such as saved documents, email or history
and favorites lists..."
6. You
also learn that whatever changes are made are completely reversible,
so there's little chance of your applying this command making
the problem worse. Now more confident that this is the solution
you seek, you continue.
7. On
the right half of the window you see 3 radio buttons with
the default selected being "Restore my Computer to an
earlier time". Ignoring the other 2 options, you click
the "Next" button at the lower half of the window
to accept the default.
8. Subsequently
the "wizard" guides you to select a restore point
(date and time that you last remember your computer settings
being exactly how you liked them). The problem you recall
happened around 12noon, so you choose 10am same day and click
for the wizard to finish the job.
SUCCESS!
A few seconds later, the wizard does
just that and suddenly your PC desktops returns to normal!
But you want to be sure, so you browse your folders and confirm
the hierarchies are back to normal - and your files where
you know you left them. What a relief, you tell yourself!
You're excited and wish you could share the news with - or
hug - someone, but no one else seems to be about. You start
to wonder why......
Then suddenly you realize it's past 2pm.
Lunch break is over, and you haven't had time to get anything
to eat! But you think: Better to miss lunch than have to manually
rectify all those system settings disrupted by that unexpected
"corrupt profile" problem!
Okay, okay, I know this did not actually
happen to you, but it did to ME(some three years ago). And
that's why I’ve chosen to share it with you.
Do you use Windows XP? If YES, why not
take some 5 minutes(that's all it takes) to get familiar with
the System Restore facility in your Windows XP today. You
never know: you - or someone you know - might just find it
to be a lifesaver someday.
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