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We all wish we could turn back the clock sometimes. When your PC starts behaving erratically or stops working altogether, finding the corrupted file or hardware incompatibility causing the problem can be difficult and time-consuming. Wouldn't it be nice to revert to a time when your system worked flawlessly? If you're using Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition, you probably can.

The Latest Is Greatest

One of the best (some might say few) reasons to upgrade to Windows Me is for its System Restore utility, which continuously tracks changes to all your key files. When new hardware, software, or some other change starts causing trouble, the utility lets you roll your system's configuration back to a point in time when everything was working.

System Restore improves on Windows 98's Registry Checker by offering three ways to take a snapshot of your system: It automatically backs up your PC once a day; it lets you manually create a back-up anytime you choose; and it automatically creates a backup just before any "event" that changes your PC's configuration, such as the installation of new software.

Restoring a backup is easy: Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, and then click "Restore my computer to an earlier time." The System Restore utility displays a calendar of the past month. Choose a date on the calendar to display that day's backups in the right-hand pane. Then select the backup you want and follow the prompts.

Be sure to pick the correct backup: The further into the past you go, the more files you sacrifice, and any hardware or software you've installed after the chosen restore date will be disabled. Start by restoring the most recent backup and see if that corrects the problem. If it doesn't, move back another day or two and try again. If you want to return to your most recent configuration, it's easy to undo any changes.

System Restore requires at least 200MB of free disk space. If you run out of space after its initial run, you'll receive a warning that the utility will go into hibernation until you free up enough space for it to function.

Windows 98 Registry's Checkered Past

If you're running Windows 98, you don't have the easy-to-use System Restore interface or its ability to restore application software. Instead, you have the Registry Checker, which automatically backs up your Registry files each day as you shut down (one reason why following Windows' standard shutdown procedure is important).

The backups are stored in the Windows\Sysbckup folder as .cab files named rbxxx.cab, where xxx is the number of the backup--001, 002, and so on. These numbers don't reflect the actual dates that the files were backed up, however. If you're looking for the most recent backup, check the modification date of the files in Windows Explorer.

By default, Registry Checker saves only the backups made in the last five days. Since it can take more than five days to discover a problem, it's best to increase that number. You can set up to a maximum of 99 backups (and change other settings) by opening the file scanreg.ini in Notepad and changing the MaxBackupCopies= setting.

It's best to keep at least a month of backups. Of course, the more copies you keep, the more disk space you consume--you may need up to 3MB for each backup. But the sacrifice is worth it if you can spare the disk space.

You can emulate Windows Me's System Restore by manually backing up your files before each major "event." From Start, Run, type scanreg.exe and select Yes when prompted to make a backup. Doing so creates one of the above-mentioned .cab files with an alphanumeric name. Rename the file in Windows Explorer so it's easily identified and not overwritten as part of the normal .cab file rotation.

Registry Checker can't back up all your applications, but it can back up more than just the Registry files. By default, Registry Checker stores the system.dat and user.dat Registry files, as well as two old Windows 3.1 files: system.ini and win.ini (for backwards compatibility). You can add other files to the list--autoexec.bat and config.sys are recommended--by editing the last line of scanreg.ini. Don't forget to remove the leading semicolon to activate the change.

To restore your backup files, restart your PC in DOS mode and enter scanreg at the DOS prompt. If you try to run scanreg from within Windows using either Start, Run or a DOS window, what you will actually be running is a different program--wscanreg--which backs up only the Registry files.

When you run scanreg, you'll see a list of your backup files. Pick your desired file and it will be restored. Any files with altered, nonalphanumeric names, such as the "event" files described above, won't appear on the list. To restore these files you must open Windows Explorer, find the desired .cab file in the Windows\Sysbckup folder, and double-click it. You'll see a list of all the files stored in that .cab file. Copy the files you want to restore over the originals--in other words, save them with the same name in the same directory--and reboot.

Kirk Steers is a PC World contributing editor. Hardware Tips welcomes your tips and questions and pays $50 for published items.

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