Restore To Previous Date

[Lost in LOS]

well I screwed up. I was having some problems with my computer adn found a funny file, i renamed it to see what happened but it changed a bunch of things. i would like to restore to yesterdays date but dont know how. the place I clicked only had todays date and yesterdays date, i clicked yesterdays and it said corrupt. Can someone tell me how to restore to a previous date?

ibm windows vista

thanks in advance

[Lost in LOS]

just seen something else. One of my new problems is my desktop is totally different. I searched and I see I have two desktops under users. One is teh correct one and one is incorrect that is showing. How do I make the correct one the default? I could rename the bad one but that is how i got into this in the first place

[Spoonman]

What was the original name of the fiile you changed, did you rename the whole file or just change the extension, can you change it back ??

[Lost in LOS]

What was the original name of the fiile you changed, did you rename the whole file or just change the extension, can you change it back ??

it was a whold lot of jumbled lettes. i just added a letter to the end to test it. after much fooling aournd i got that part back. I found two versions of desktop, one good and one bad. i coudnt figure out to make the good one come up at startup so I copied the shortcups for the different one [was afraid to delete the wrong one] and that all works now.

i would still like to restore from yesterday if I can

[BB1950]

just seen something else. One of my new problems is my desktop is totally different. I searched and I see I have two desktops under users. One is teh correct one and one is incorrect that is showing. How do I make the correct one the default? I could rename the bad one but that is how i got into this in the first place

Oh my gosh! Management of system folders is considerably different in the newer versions of Windows, compared to Windows XP. You can't just rename a system folder, nor can you just copy everything in the correct desktop to the current desktop. There are hidden files and folders that identify the system folders and are in the objects used in the registry. Also system restore is radically different.

Did you start windows in Safe Mode and then try the restore to the previous date? Sometimes antivirus software prevent the restoration to a previous date in Vista and Windows 7. Try that first.

[BB1950]

What was the original name of the fiile you changed, did you rename the whole file or just change the extension, can you change it back ??

it was a whold lot of jumbled lettes. i just added a letter to the end to test it. after much fooling aournd i got that part back. I found two versions of desktop, one good and one bad. i coudnt figure out to make the good one come up at startup so I copied the shortcups for the different one [was afraid to delete the wrong one] and that all works now.

i would still like to restore from yesterday if I can

Those jumbled letters are the object names used in the registry. Don't ever change them!

[Lost in LOS]

What was the original name of the fiile you changed, did you rename the whole file or just change the extension, can you change it back ??

it was a whole lot of jumbled letters. i just added a letter to the end to test it. after much fooling aournd i got that part back. I found two versions of desktop, one good and one bad. i coudnt figure out to make the good one come up at startup so I copied the shortcuts for the different one [was afraid to delete the wrong one] and that all works now.

i would still like to restore from yesterday if I can

Those jumbled letters are the object names used in the registry. Don't ever change them!

now you tell me I think I renamed it [took the last couple of letters I added to it off. Not sure all is well with it though, seems to be working okay

Edited September 26, 2010 by Lost in LOS

[BB1950]

What was the original name of the fiile you changed, did you rename the whole file or just change the extension, can you change it back ??

it was a whole lot of jumbled letters. i just added a letter to the end to test it. after much fooling aournd i got that part back. I found two versions of desktop, one good and one bad. i coudnt figure out to make the good one come up at startup so I copied the shortcuts for the different one [was afraid to delete the wrong one] and that all works now.

i would still like to restore from yesterday if I can

Those jumbled letters are the object names used in the registry. Don't ever change them!

now you tell me I think I renamed it [took the last couple of letters I added to it off. Not sure all is well with it though, seems to be working okay

If you were able to restore the name properly and the system now starts up with the correct desktop, you should be okay.

However, it would be better and more reassuring if you restored to the previous date (prior to your tinkering). Did you try the restore in Safe Mode yet?

[floridaguy]

Assuming your system is not too new, you should have the option at the screen where it shows you the last couple of days to "Show more dates" or something to that effect. Look around on that screen where you are choosing dates and it should be there. Then it will show you upto about 6 weeks back.

Also, since you messed with a system folder, you may want to boot to safe mode and then do the restore.

Hope that helps.

[floridaguy]

This is windows 7, but it should be similar.

[Lost in LOS]

will try the restoring, safe than sorry, even though it appears to be working thanks everybody

[Daffy D]

Too late for OP but maybe help someone else in future.

If you want to change a file name just to try something put a letter or number to the front of the file name, not at the end as you may change the file extension by mistake.

Example:- mydogday.txt change it to X-mydogday.txt.

By using X- it will be easy to find again (at the end) and easy to change back.

[BB1950]

Too late for OP but maybe help someone else in future.

If you want to change a file name just to try something put a letter or number to the front of the file name, not at the end as you may change the file extension by mistake.

Example:- mydogday.txt change it to X-mydogday.txt.

By using X- it will be easy to find again (at the end) and easy to change back.

That's good advice for normal data files.

But for Windows Vista and Windows 7 never ever ever change the names of files that have the { } characters in the name, or as the OP put it "a whole lot of jumbled letters", or system files and folders without creating a restore point first. Even better to have a recent system backup in case the system won't boot from your tinkering. You can risk crashing the system! It's just like tinkering with the registry.

By default these files and folders are normally hidden and not accessible, but you can gain access to them as the OP clearly has demonstrated. Windows 7 is better at protecting these files than Vista. But anything is possible.

[Lost in LOS]

I have learned a big lesson and will watch for those files again. Thanks. I am reluctant to go back to a previous date as I have been using the computer and don't want to lose any info after I got it working again. The only problem I am having is changing the name of the system file a couple of times it made copies of some of my files so I have to search around for them and try to fix them.

ie: a file on my desktop that I made that says downloads is there but another also inside users that says downloadsme. This happened with several files but should be easy to fix

thanks for all your help, I cant get it straightened out easily I will do the restore and try to figure out what new info I put on. If I do do a restore all my infor up to that date will still be there but not the info after, am I correct?

thanks for all the help, I learned a lot

[BB1950]

I have learned a big lesson and will watch for those files again. Thanks. I am reluctant to go back to a previous date as I have been using the computer and don't want to lose any info after I got it working again. The only problem I am having is changing the name of the system file a couple of times it made copies of some of my files so I have to search around for them and try to fix them.

ie: a file on my desktop that I made that says downloads is there but another also inside users that says downloadsme. This happened with several files but should be easy to fix

thanks for all your help, I cant get it straightened out easily I will do the restore and try to figure out what new info I put on. If I do do a restore all my infor up to that date will still be there but not the info after, am I correct?

thanks for all the help, I learned a lot

That is usually true for important system files, folders, and registry entries. However depending on your Vista restore settings when the restore point was made. Data files may not be affected. I've also found that in some cases files and folders added after the restore point was made are not deleted.

Remember a system restore can be undone if you don't like the result.

Something that I always found was never restored properly was the notification area or the the quick launch area of the taskbar. I always have to back and reconfigure them.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I have learned a big lesson and will watch for those files again. Thanks. I am reluctant to go back to a previous date as I have been using the computer and don't want to lose any info after I got it working again. The only problem I am having is changing the name of the system file a couple of times it made copies of some of my files so I have to search around for them and try to fix them.

ie: a file on my desktop that I made that says downloads is there but another also inside users that says downloadsme. This happened with several files but should be easy to fix

thanks for all your help, I cant get it straightened out easily I will do the restore and try to figure out what new info I put on. If I do do a restore all my infor up to that date will still be there but not the info after, am I correct?

thanks for all the help, I learned a lot

System Restore restores system settings, not your Data. So you won't lose your files.