no restore points in windows me

[nana1945]

  i am useing avast4 home edition.updated latest version today.i have windows me and ie6 sp1. when i have avast running in task bar, my system will not set automatic restore points. any way around this? have been useing avast for several months. has always been that way.thanks

[techie101]

nana,

Go into ME and make sure that the System Restore function has not been disabled.
Avast as far as I know would not affect the setting of Restore points  as this is a function of the OS, not the antivirus scanner.

You could also try an Avast "repair" just in case it IS somehow responsible.
Do this by using Control Panel/Add_Remove/Avast.....You will see the option to "Repair"

Good luck

[Lisandro]

My system will not set automatic restore points.

After checking if you System Restore is not disable, and answer other Techie's question, do you use any defragmentation tool? Like O&O, PerfectDisk, DisKeeper, Norton Speed Disk?

[gbark]

nana,

Which firewall do you use? I use OutpostPro v2.5 (OPP) on WinMe and OPP has always disabled WinMe's automatic restore point generation. I do it manually every week or so, but I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling OPP, going through the disable/enable restore and everything I could think of, and can't get automatic restore points with OPP. I can set and restore manually just fine though.

I stay up with the OPP forums and we've never been able to figure out the problem. It was acknowledged back in the v1.x days and has never been resolved.

If you're running OPP, that's almost certainly the problem. If you run another firewall (you *do* run a firewall, right  ) it probably isn't the problem. I've never heard of any other FW software stopping WinMe's auto-restore points.

Good luck, and welcome to a great forum!

[nana1945]

thanks for all your suggestions. restore is not disabled. i use zone alarm for firewall. had the problem before using it so, don't think firewall is causing it. i can also set restore points manually. i use diskeeper lite for defrag but, i run it manually. it isn't in the task bar. as long as avast is in the task bar restore don't work.if i take it out, restore works. i don't consider it a big problem as long as i can set the restore points manually. was just curious if anyone else had the same problem. thanks again.

[Lisandro]

avast should not interfere but...
Defragmentation could be detected as 'disk operations' and because it's intense, the restore points could not be stored.
Does Diskeeper lite have any Service running in background?
Anyway, Windows Restore is not precisely a restore application as it works only for drivers and some files on system folders.
For a complete restore application, you should have Norton GoBack.
Sorry if I can't help more... 

[nana1945]

no,i have diskeeper disabled. i run it manually. i dont have screen savers either. nothing else running in the background that i can find. as long as i can set restore points manually, i can live with it the way it is. thanks

[Newton]

Nana,

Thanks for your thread, because you actually discovered a bug.

I found out I have the same problem.

This bug is not linked to any firewall software or defrag utilities, because I don't use any and I experience the same problem.

I think I have a clue about what could cause this, so I'll do some tests and give you some feedback later this week if i can find a solution.

 

[nana1945]

Nana,

Thanks for your thread, because you actually discovered a bug.

I found out I have the same problem.

This bug is not linked to any firewall software or defrag utilities, because I don't use any and I experience the same problem.

I think I have a clue about what could cause this, so I'll do some tests and give you some feedback later this week if i can find a solution.

 

thank you newton. i will be watching for your feedback. glad to see it isn't just my imagination.

[Newton]

To Nana and everyone at the Avast staff in charge of the software bugs :

I confirm that the problem discovered by Nana is indeed a bug created by your software. In short, the Windows ME restore utility can't create new restore points automically as it should. The only temporary solution is to create them manually.

I use the free edition of Avast and I'm running on the Windows ME. I do not use any firewall, or third-party disk utilities can could interfere in any way.

And as Nana discovered, if I uninstall Avast, the Win ME restore function works fine and can then create restore points automatically.

I also tried all the tricks I know that used to solve problems related to "similar" Win ME restore problems in the past. Note that all those tricks come from the official Microsoft site.

- Disable the restore fonction and then re-enable it again in order to restart it. This do not solve the "Avast bug".

- Disable/re-enable the restore fonction, and in between rename the C:\restore directory through the Win ME boot-up diskette and DOS prompt, in order to get rid of a possible "corrupted directory containing wrong entries". This do not solve the "Avast bug".

- Through the Win ME boot-up diskette and DOS prompt, use of the scanreg /restore command to repair and reset the restore function directly. This do not solve the "Avast bug".

- Manually enter several entries through regedit as specified by Microsoft to repair the system restore's registry. This do not solve the "Avast bug".

In conclusion, there is definitely something wrong generated by the Avast software that prevents the Win ME restore function to create restore points automatically.

This bug is also created not only by the current version of Avast, but by some earlier versions as well, because as Nana pointed out, I also discovered that the restore points weren't automatically created since I installed it for the first time some months ago. The initial version of Avast installed on my PC (in other words, that also generated the same bug) is the setupeng.exe file which size is 8,680,872 bytes.

Hope all those infos can help you guys find the bug.

Feel free to contact me anytime you want me to do tests with Avast under the Windows ME OS.

 

[nana1945]

  thank you newton for trying to figure this out. hope someone can fix it.i cant have avast running in the task bar at all. i dont want to have to switch to another av. avast works good for me except for the no restore points. thanks again.

[Newton]

thank you newton for trying to figure this out. hope someone can fix it.i cant have avast running in the task bar at all. i dont want to have to switch to another av. avast works good for me except for the no restore points. thanks again.

Yes, it would be just sad to have to find an alternative AV, as I don't see any other problem with Avast.

So I hope they can fix this too.

 

[Newton]

To the Avast "software bugs" team :

- Could this problem has anything to do with your Standard Shield Task Blocker?

Thanks in advance.

[Newton]

Another update here.

One of my friends just reported me the same problem. He recently installed Avast on his PC which runs under Win ME, and he does not have any automatic restore points anymore on his system since he install your antivirus.

This makes three people having the same problem, which confirms again that this is a bug caused by Avast.

I would appreciate if at least one of the Avast team guys in charge of the bugs acknowledge he has read this thread.

Thanks a lot in advance.