| Registry Backup and Restore |
Some versions of Windows operating systems such as Windows 98, would daily produce a backup of your system registry provided your PC was rebooted during that calendar day. It may not be good to know that the problems you like to fix with a Registry Restore may be included in the most recent backup.
Therefore, it is a good idea to start making your own registry backups instead of depending on those generated by Windows. Not many average users know the process for backing up and restoring a registry is different between various versions of Windows. To avoid getting lost, one should search the Microsoft website for accurate instructions pertaining to your version of Windows.
How many of us take this instruction of Microsoft seriously:
"Before trying to edit the registry it is important that you backup your registry just in case you make a mistake and want to revert back to an old configuration."
All users of Windows XP, can backup their entire system registry or the particular set of keys that they are planning to edit. Backing up your entire registry, may be done either by using the Windows backup utility and backing up the System State data or any other preferred backup utility like WinBackup and follow relevant vendor instructions.
Windows ME and Windows XP make System Restore a bit easier as both have a System Restore feature that securely stores data that can used afterwards to put your system back to a previous state when it was known to function correctly.
If your last restore point had problems like a virus activity or a browser crash, it is quite probable that this information would also be restored to your system. It is important to remember that having a useful Registry Restore is relies on you having taken the practical steps to creating a good, usable backup to restore from. No less significant is to study help files and search the Microsoft online Knowledge Base for registry backup and restore information relevant to the Windows version installed on your PC.