Skip to main content

How to Restore Specific Files from Windows System Restore Points

It is hardly necessary to recapitulate how useful and convenient Windows System Restore feature is. Whether an operating system file got corrupted, or a rogue software disabled some core Windows feature, or an unstable driver rendered the OS dead, System Restore can bring the computer back to life and running as before. Basically, restoring a computer to an earlier date undoes all changes made to the system. User files are spared but new program and updates installed will be lost. If your primary reason for restoring a computer is to recover only a specific program or file, there is a better way to do it.

System Restore Explorer is a tool which allows you to browse system restore points on your computer and mount the contents of a individual restore point into a folder so that you can browse and copy individual files, without the need to perform a full system restore.

system-restore-explorer

When you select a restore point and mount it the tool will create a shortcut to that particular restore point, and open the directory in Windows explorer. You can then browse the files like you do on any normal directory. Once you have finished with a particular restore point you can either use the tool to unmount it or simply delete the shortcut. Deleting the shortcut does not delete the restore point.

system-restore-explorer2

System Restore Explorer works on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Related:

Comments

  1. i've been using SRE for the past year or so. however, today i had a challenge it could't address. it seems SRE only works with the windows drive. i use an ssd, and my appdata etal is located on a second drive. (i did this using reprofiler) i was trying to restore a borked firefox profile, and my E drive (which also has system restore enabled) would not come up. i had to search and find shadow explorer, an siimlar app, with with i was able to access the drive. one difference though, shadow explorer doesn't mount the restore point, it browses through it. also, it only ids restore points by date, not desription

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing such great info!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: