How to Restore a Computer to an Earlier Setting

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If your computer is suddenly infected with a virus, there are a number of options you have. One of the best, and easiest, is restoring your computer to an earlier setting. This literally restores your computer's entire hard drive to its former self at an earlier time, either that day, or the day before.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

PC computer

How to Restore a Computer to an Earlier Setting

Step1

Find the System Restore program on your PC. The program that you will use to restore your computer to an earlier setting is already installed in your computer. The first thing you will do is to click on the "Start" menu in the lower left-hand corner of your computer screen. Click on the "All Programs" prompt. This will take you to another menu. In that menu, you will find an "Accessories" category. Go into "Accessories." Once you are in "Accessories," you will find another menu. In this menu you will find a "System Tools" category. Go into the "System Tools" category. Inside "System Tools," you will find a number of programs listed, among them "System Restore." Click on System Restore.

Step2

Follow the program's prompts. The following program will lead you through a number of screens where you will need to navigate toward restoring your computer to its earlier setting. On the first screen, you are given a couple choices. Choose "Restore my computer to an earlier time," then click "next." The following screen will give you several choices on several days of which date and time you would like to restore your computer to. Choose one, and click "Next."

Step3

Confirm and restore. The following screen will give you one last chance to confirm the date and time that you will restore your computer to. Make sure that this is the exact date and time that you want it restored to, and click "Next." The computer will turn itself off and automatically restart. When the computer restarts, the restoration should be complete. Your computer will be as it was exactly at the time of the restoration that you chose.

Step4

Use preventative measures to ensure that you are prepared for the future. The best way to prevent problems with your hard drive in the future is to back up all of your information and programs. The most efficient way to back up all of your programs and data is by storing them on a separate external hard drive. These external hard drives are relatively inexpensive and can be purchased at any electronics store. They generally come with their own installation software and instructions on how to back up your data and computer programs.

Tips & Warnings

Any work that you have saved after the time you picked for the restoration will be lost. Be sure to save this work to a separate disk so you can re-save it in your hard drive after you restore.