Char Jackson wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jun 2018 14:44:24 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder
wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jun 2018 07:38:02 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

Disable System Restore.

Hmmmmmm... Thanks... that's interesting. Very interesting.
Why would we want to disable System Restore?

The topic of SR and its value comes up every now and then in these
groups, and the general consensus is that, even though it's opaque and
it usually doesn't work, it *might* work now and again, so keep it.

I disagree with that consensus. Not because it usually fails and not
because Restore Points can swell your (hidden) System Volume Information
folder and not because Restore Points can carry malware that would be
restored along with the Restore Point. No, I disagree because it's
opaque.

When you apply a Restore Point, what happens? Microsoft tells you, in a
general sense, that your system is being restored to a prior date or
time. You apply the RP and you hope that your issue is resolved. But
what really happened? What are all of the changes that were just made to
your system? No one knows, but it's a very safe bet that the RP that you
just restored carried more than one change within it, and not just the
single change that you needed to fix your current issue. That bothers
me.

It's even worse than that! Even if you're not interested to know which
change fixed your problem, SR might - and probably will - fsck up
*something else* which is has no business touching.

Microsoft implies that SR doesn't touch user data. They lie. They *do*
touch parts of user data and will - for example - have no quibble in
fscking a database, because they think they know what (not) to restore.
BTDT got the T-shirt. More on this below.

Microsoft apparently thinks that it knows what part(s) of non-MS
software (not) to restore. Fact is of course that they don't know and
*can't* possibly know, so by definition they will fsck things up.

System Restore, just say no!

[+1 comments left for completeness:]

My solution is to disable System Restore. As is, I consider it to be an
abomination and I don't want to be tempted to use it out of laziness. I
prefer to fix each issue properly, rather than taking a shotgun approach
or what some call poke-and-hope.

To fix it, I'd need to see a screen that says, 'When you select and
restore this RP, the following changes will be made to your system."
However, look at how MS describes each of their KB software updates
these days, with language so vague and generalized that most people
really have no idea what MS is talking about. That doesn't cut it for
software updates, and it wouldn't cut it for System Restore.

That's my mini-rant on System Restore. I think it's a great idea for a
feature, just very poorly implemented.