One of Windows XP's brand new features is the System Restore utility, an update of the registry rollback tool first seen in Windows ME. The program has been considerably enhanced since these humble beginnings, and is a very useful safety tool. It uses 'restore points' which are snapshots of your registry and system condition at a specific time. The points are stored on disk and can be used to effectively move your PC back through time to a previous condition.

As you can imagine, this utility comes in quite handy for heavy-duty tweaking (though it wastes a LOT of disk space by default, more on this later), acting as a safety net.

To create a restore point:

Go to 'start/all programs/accessories/system tools/system restore.' Click 'create a restore point.' Give your restore point a name and click 'ok.'

That's all. To restore your system to its previous condition, fire up system restore again and select 'restore my system to an earlier time.' You will be presented with a calendar view of all current restore points. Windows creates them automatically by default under certain conditions such as program installs. Choose the one you created, click 'next' and follow the instructions.

Now, as for the amount of drive space that System Restore eats up, we have a tweak for that next!

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