You may have altered something causes your system to malfunction. To get it back to rights all you may need to do is restore the registry. If this does not fix the problem you may have to perform a windows xp system restore of your system from a restore point.
Never fear this is not as drastic as it sounds as windows xp has special arrangements with it’s self to get your system back again from information it saves periodically. A system restore does not affect any of your data files or programs that may have been installed.
Windows XP system restore is actually quite a straightforward procedure. But first this facility needs to be enabled on your system see the “Check System Restore Enabled” page if you want to check this.
Why would you want to do a system restore?
You may have just installed a program that is causing havoc with your system and you are unable to to de-install it. You may have got a virus in one of your programs that you cannot get rid of. You may have got a corrupted part of your disk where some system programs reside. (You should try a disk check first before you attempt a restore.)
System restore saves pertinent details periodically. Executing a system restore does not affect any data that you currently have on your hard disk even though you may select a restore point from several weeks away.
What will happen is any programs you may have installed since that date will not be restored. This means that you will have to re-install these programs. Just remember it may have been one of those programs that may have caused the problem that has made you decide to do a system restore.
Anyway follow this procedure to execute a system restore:
1. With your mouse left click on “Start” then “All Programs” (or “Programs if you are using the “classic” start menu), Then click on “Accessories” then “System Tools” Then “System Restore”
2. You should get a window like this,
3. Click on “Restore my computer to an earlier time” Then click on next.
4. Your will get a window like this.
You will see from one to several bold dates. If you select one of the bold dates your may also see from one to several restore points in the right pane. You will need to select one. Select one that you think may be prior to the problems you are having then click on “Next”
5. You will then get another window, click on “Next”
Now the restore will start. Windows will collect certain bits of information and then reboot. The actual restore will commence when windows xp is starting up again. It is possible that a restore will fail. All that will happen is that you will get a message saying that the system restore wasn’t accomplish and you system will be put back to what it was.
If this happens just execute this procedure and select a restore point before the one that failed until you find one that works.
After the restore is complete you will find that in the window showing at instruction 2 a new option will appear that enables you to “undo” the last restoration.
I hope this procedure has enabled you to get back your system to a stable state.
Wilf Gerrard-Staton