A little about System Restore in Windows 8

The first blog post in 2012 the producers of Windows 8 is a potentially more interesting features of the system: Windows to the restoration of the original installation state. It is something radically different from the present system resturação Windows Millennium (remember him?: P), XP, Vista and 7.

With friends and family often call me to solve a computer problem. Probably many here also go through this. Almost always it's about the software: a program that should not have been placed there, malware or viruses, or just some misconfiguration. It is often more practical format and reinstall Windows to look for a solution, something that could take several hours - and it takes several hours to reinstall, since it is often necessary to go out looking for drivers, configuring the main programs, etc.. Windows 7 can be installed over the previous unformatted, which prevents data loss - the old data will Windows.old to the folder, the Explorer can be retrieved later. But this is still far from ideal.

Who needs restorative solutions usually has some means not very practical: in addition to the installation manual, in some cases you can use an installation CD / restoration of the manufacturer, or from a hidden partition on the HD systems pre-installed. .. But in all programs and files need to be put in place later. Besides taking a long time this is considered "difficult" to do the vast majority of home users, is complicated even help them by phone. And we're talking about basic users, then skip tools like Norton Ghost and dd.

Windows 8 radically improves the experience in these situations annoying. Even nontechnical users can restore the system from the original state without going through all the screens of a traditional installation, with a few clicks in the interface self-explanatory screens (the traditional system is also well explained, but many can not even boot from the CD / DVD ...).

Full restoration is to be expected in systems of smartphones, tablets and equipment such as routers (which have a physical button to "reset"). He gave a problem? Just restore and ready. Windows 8 will bring it to the desktop natively, without relying on third-party programs. An item on the control panel allow you to restore your computer, offering two distinct modes for this: a complete restoration that removes everything that was put on Windows, and a system restore but keep personal files and Metro applications, without the traditional programs.

These features are already present in the Developer Preview released last year, but will be improved in the beta (expected in February).

The first, "reset" removes all personal data, applications and settings, and then reinstall Windows from the original image.

In both cases, Windows will be reinstalled in fact, removing any changes made to system files, and installed programs (except the Metro, which are isolated). It also enters the viruses, spyware and malware in general. Is one of the best ways to clean up the system in problematic infections, the virus can not solve - without considering here the case of rootkits, bootkits or infections in the image file in Windows HD, which ultimately affects the restoration.

The applications use a Metro packaging itself, isolated, different from other applications. Usually traditional programs use different installers, put files in various system locations. Although Windows 98 to be exceeded, is still not difficult to see developers creating installers with characteristics of programs for Windows 9x, without considering the multi-user environment of Windows NT/2000/XP and higher. At that time it was common to store files inside the Windows folder inside the system32, scattered on the C drive, etc.. Many put files in the system unduly complicating the maintenance later. Make a copy of the installed program is difficult, is almost always missing some setting or dll file, Windows has no way of knowing which is which program. The restoration is then the traditional applications include, but Metro will maintain the style, using a different wrapper made to Windows 8, easy to carry and safe - a Metro application does not change the system or compromise the use of others.

This is good because often the cause of the problem is just a recently installed program and find out what takes time, requires a thorough analysis and some testing ... Certainly something that most home users would not be able (or willing) to do. It's easier to click a button to have Windows running and then reinstall necessary. To help put the system on the desktop a list of programs that have been removed.

In addition to the original image backup that Windows keeps in HD (or a separate partition, for that matter) you can create a custom image. The idea is simple: when you install Windows programs you need to install and configure what you want. Then generates the image. Later, in the event of a serious problem, it can be used for restoration.

The performance will be "good", rather than to use tools such as dd or commercial backup solutions: Windows will not physically move the files, at least not those that are not needed, such as personal files, documents, photos, etc. .

As a bonus, the "reset" the system will be possible to choose a safe removal of data, where the restorer write garbage data in HD a few times to avoid the subsequent recovery.

This will take longer, but may be useful for companies, governments, or anyone with sensitive data on your PC. It is a good way to spend the PC forward without worrying about the exposure of data that was it.

One interesting thing is that with BitLocker active (HD encryption available in some editions of Windows) restore time is incredibly fast, even with the rewriting of data to prevent recovery. This will occur because the large volume of data is already encrypted, the information will only be removed to access the file system. The process took between 6-8 minutes in the x86 tablet given to some participants at the conference BUILD. The reset complete with safe removal (the rewriting of the data on the hard drive) without the Bitlocker took 23 minutes on the same PC.

In the Developer Preview Restore tool can now be used. The image customization is also possible. Just what you need to install and configure the system as you want, and then generate the image. At the command prompt as an administrator, you can run the parameter-passing as recimg.exe createImage [path to an empty folder]. For example:

mkdir C: \ backup

recimg-createImage C: \ backup

In Windows 8 beta tool will be updated, allowing to restore the system from a bootable USB stick. By the way, the Windows bootloader 8 is completely different than before, being practically a mini operating system not to boot. Graphic and visually appealing boot screen also allows you to use the recovery options for cases in which Windows can not start.

This menu has been specially designed for modern and tablet PCs with UEFI. Imagine having to hit F8 on a tablet (need to connect a physical keyboard) ... So the boot screen is usable with touch screens, as already mentioned .