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Yesterday I thought that something had gone wrong with my system, so I restored my system from a restore point that was automatically created a week ago. The system restoration went well. Everything seems to work fine, except that I once got an error message when opening Notepad, saying that the application could not be started, but it was a one-off incident, and I haven't experienced this problem again.

I've now realized that nothing was actually wrong with my system to begin with, so restoring the system was not needed.

A friend of mine is now telling me that System Restore has side effects. He says that if I examined logs, I would almost certainly see that my system now experiences various errors or conflicts, even though I don't see them as the user. He compares System Restore with performing a surgery as every surgery creates a tissue damage and leaves a scar. He says that even though I don't see any problems with my system, it is kind of damaged anyway, and this damage may make my system somewhat slower and cause issues in the future.

Is what he is saying true? Should I be concerned?

(My system is Windows 11 Home.)

Mitsuko
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    System restore could *in theory* mean that a program installed gets reverted to an earlier version while it's configuration file or some DLL remains on a newer version, but there is nothing intrinsically dangerous as programs tend to automatically update these days. It doesn't mean your system is now "broken by default" or slower and your friend is just spreading [FUD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt). – Mokubai Aug 06 '23 at 12:18
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    At worse, you may need to update third-party programs, [run `Dism` and `Sfc`](https://superuser.com/a/1579031/529800) _(if they return no issues found, the OS files have no problems - these need to be run prior to Windows Update after a restore)_, and run Windows Update. System Restore is sound and any potential issues that are a result of it can be permanently fixed via the aforementioned steps. – JW0914 Aug 06 '23 at 12:24

2 Answers2

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A System Restore to a prior point does not intrinsically have any side effects.

If your system is working fine, then very most likely the prior point is fine.

So there is nothing to be concerned about.

You may wish to run updates again to make sure later updates are complete.

Your friend's statements fall into the area of misinformation.

John
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Any time that you create a System Restore point, the restore process starts with creating a new Restore point. This means that you can restore back to this point, so undo your last restore and go back to the situation as it was before.

Regarding side-effects : A Restore point does not contain the entire system. This is not a backup. It concentrates on some folders and some types of files (such as .exe).

This means that you not only lose any applications that you installed or modified, you might also lose parts of some installation that were not totally restored. You might find yourself with a mixture of old and new files or settings, with unknown side-effects.

I recommend restoring back to the latest Restore point, which hopefully was created just a short while ago.

harrymc
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  • Yes, a new restore point was created at the start of the restore process, so I can undo my last restore. However, a few applications have already been updated since yesterday, so I'm afraid that going back now might create even more mess. Given this as well as that everything seems to work fine at the moment, do you think I should undo yesterday's restore? – Mitsuko Aug 06 '23 at 16:20
  • All I can say is that if you're worried about side-effects, and if the modifications done since yesterday are easily redone, then the restore will not do any harm. But if everything is working fine, there might not be a reason for doing again a restore, which is a heavy operation with consequences. The decision must be yours to do. – harrymc Aug 06 '23 at 16:29