Help with reinstalling system restore on XP

[pastywhitegurl]

I went looking for logs from your computer to find out when the system was installed and see it was almost 6 years ago:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Install Date: 8/31/2008 6:38:09 PM

I see it was in that thread in December that you had a problem with System Restore.  I'm afraid it is a symptom of the age of the computer.  A Repair Install may fix it but no guarantee. It may help to reinstall SR.  Instructions are available at How to reinstall System Restore in Windows XP?. Do note the caution at the top that indicates that the procedure will remove all the existing System Restore points, and resets the System Restore drive monitoring options to defaults.

The caution about losing restore points is moot, is it not, since I can't use the restore option now anyway?  About to try this by this alternate method:

    Alternately, you can reinstall System Restore using the following command line:

rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %Windir%\Inf\sr.inf

I assume this is copyied and pasted into the Run field in the start menu, and then activated by the Enter key?

But before I do, can someone tell me what happens when you run this?  I understand I might need to insert my WindowsXP disk, but what if the re-install doesn't work? Is there any problem that might happen from trying this?

Also, last night I got a little notice that a Windows update was ready to be installed.  Since XP isn't supposed to be getting any more updates,  I looked online, and found a blog post that said MS had pushed out an update to XP for some kind of IE hotfix.   I didn't click the icon because responses to the post from a couple of XP users said the update crashed their computer.

So I decided to do the system restore repair first, in case I had the same problem, and didn't allow the update to install yet. It was very late, so I decided to go to bed and deal with it this morning.

Now this morning,   (I did not shut the computer down last night.) I got a system message that "some tasks did not complete" and the updates icon is no longer in my taskbar, and my MSE castle icon is no longer in the taskbar (but when I pull up the console, it says it is on and up to date).   After I get through this system restore reinstall process, I might need help on how to get the May 1 update again if it doesn't come up on the Windows Updates site.

[pastywhitegurl]

o. just another bit of info.  I did make a restore point with Erunt right after the problems with the last XP update that messed things up was fixed.  I can make another before I do this, but would that be something that I could restore from if this goes awry?

[pastywhitegurl]

Also wondering, when I restart my computer....will the option to install the Windows Update that was ready appear again?

[Corrine]

Erunt backs up the registry.  It is not a replacement for System Restore.  However, since you're getting a new computer, let's forget about SR for now.

The problem you had before with was a MSE update, not a security update.  Because the IE zero-day vulnerability came so soon after April 8, Microsoft decided to go ahead and update Windows XP for the vulnerability.  Since the XP computer is still online and not yet decommissioned, install the security update and keep Flash Player updated.  (There was an out-of-band Flash Player updated too.)

[pastywhitegurl]

ok!  I will do both of those ASAP. :) :thumbsup:

[Corrine]

You can find the Adobe Flash direct download links in my blog post:  Adobe Flash Player Critical Security Updates

[pastywhitegurl]

Thanks for the link.  Both flashes are updated now.  I like always having the link to check the version too. I don't always remember if I've updated or not.

Apparently, MicroSoft  didn't wait for me to approve the update, and the reason I got the tasks uncompleted message was that the update was installed and then my computer restarted.   I found the update listed  in the history when I went to the updates site.   

It said update:
Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP (KB2964358)

was successfully installed.  So  I'm good.  Search for updates said no other critical updates were found.

I'm jazzed...new computer on the way!

[Corrine]

I don't blame you for being excited.  It will definitely keep you busy (and I hope out of trouble) for a while.  :D