Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)

Subject: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 05:58 PM

My PC has recently started to freeze up. Sometimes it happens after only a few minutes, sometimes a lot longer before it happens. It's Windows XP SP2.

I thought at first it was caused by Automatic Updates, and turned them off, but it wasn't that. I can't relate it to anything I do on it.

When it happens I've used Task Manager to remove tasks but I can never get it to recover, and always have to power off/reboot.

I've checked for viruses and adware/spyware but found nowt.

Any ideas as to what it could be? Let me know if more info required.

p.s. why do Tech computer threads appear above the line? Shouldn't they be below it? Just wondered.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 06:01 PM

You get a better class of person above the line!
G.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 06:46 PM

Mine does this occasionally (Mac OS X/Safari).
At first I thought the mouse had died but it's not that.
A massive housekeeping appeared to cure it but the problem returned.
Hitting the tab key or the arrows sometimes clears it.
Failing that, unplugging and replugging the keyboard violently and swearing can scare it into behaving.
If not, force quit and go away and do something more useful.
The pricessor will sulk for a while then make up its mind to do what you want.
Until the next time.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Peace
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 06:50 PM

People have to behave above the line--both the general membership and the clones.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 07:08 PM

always have to power off/reboot

It should be extremely rare that you should have to "power off" in order to restart your computer. It does happen, but it shouldn't happen often.

If you can't get a response out of the start button, to choose Shut Down and then pick Restart, Ctl-Alt-Delete should bring up a screen that asks if you want to Shut Down, or gives you the choice of going to Task Manager where you can close individual prcesses. Depending on how deep a lockup is, Ctl-Esc often will bring up the Start ribbon, where "u" will select the shutdown menu too. If you have a "thoroughly modern keyboard" the "Start" button, sometimes showing just the "Microsoft Flag" and located betwee Ctl and Alt at the left end of the bottom row will also sometimes bring up the Start ribbon.

If everything locks up, you should try repeating Ctl-Alt-Delete - several times if necessary, allowing time for the system to respond, before actually turning off the power. Usually a second Ctl-Alt-Delete will reboot the machine if the processor is still running.

During operation, Windows (especially WinXP and other "recent" versions) needs to do a lot of bookkeeping, and does it mostly in RAM. If the machine is not allowed to do it's shutdown processes, it doesn't get a chance to write the RAM contents out to the appropriate file so that the files will be correct at the next startup. This can cause corruption of whole bunches of .dll files and in the Registry which is the main control center for the whole system. A "power off" shutdown can also result in corruption of your hard drive, meaning (fairly often) that some necessary files can't be found or (very rarely) that the whole drive dies.

If the normal shutdown process doesn't get done, you should get a notice that the computer is doing a disk check at the next bootup, but depending on how far into the shutdown it got it sometimes skips this step.

You may have been doing it all right and I'm misreading your "power off" description. There are occasional times when it's the only way to get turned off too.

If you have made BRS (Big Red Switch = pull the cord) shutdowns, and the disk check didn't run on restart, I'd strongly recommend that you right-click on your main drive (probably C:\) in Windows Explorer, Select Properties, Click the "Tools" tab, and at "Check Disk for Errors" put a check in the box for "Automatically Fix Errors" and then click OK. There is another box for "Scan and attempt to recover sectors marked bad" that you can also check, but that scan takes an incredibly long time to run on reasonably large drives, so you can skip it until you have lots of time later.

To check for disk errors, the OS must have full control of the disk, and it can't do that if other processes are running. It will ask if you want to run the check at the next boot. Say yes, and the next time you shut down properly and restart, it should run the check routine. It takes quite a lot of time (up to about an hour) to run a disk check, so make sure you can allow time for it to finish before you let it launch. If you check the "recover bad sectors" option at least two hours is commonly a normal time.

If the check for errors runs, it will correct any file structure errors on the drive that may have resulted from "partially finished" writes when the computer shutdown abnormally. It CANNOT replace files that were corrupted or destroyed, but at least the drive will be in better shape.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 08:09 PM

John

I read the reinstall log file - as per hassles mentioned in the other thread about Bit Rot Hassles - and was surprised just how many files were alegedly 'missing' - I have had a run of lockups and chkdsk restarts - Windoze habit of trashng allegedly 'readonly' files like dlls is amazing...

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: EBarnacle
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 10:46 PM

How long ago did the problem begin? You may have loaded some malware unintentionally. What you need to do is set up a system restore to before that date. Use the search feature of the start menu and print out the instructions, if you can. If you cannot, then use someone else's machine to print out the info. If that does not work, you need real help.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 11:21 PM

Foolestroupe -

.dll files are frequently tagged as read-only, but not always, and they often get modified by the programs that use them, so they're pretty "fluid." Many of them can be deleted, and the next time you open the program it will create a new one. That's a common way of getting rid ot a corrupted .dll. Since it doesn't work for all of them, you have to be careful, and reasonably sure that the one you delete is a "rebuildable" one. For the ones that aren't, you may need to snatch a new starter from CAB files.

The modifications to .dll files, and the less frequent changes to registry are two of the things that get saved during the normal shutdown cycle, and the resulting corrupted files, especially the .dll ones, is a common cause of sudden or progressive slowdowns, since the computer finds lots of files that it needs but they don't work quite right.

EBarnacle -

If you have System Restore turned on, WinXP saves a new backup copy every time you shut down if anything has changed, but it only saves five or six copies (I forget the exact number, but it's small). If you keep making changes and rebooting, you'll very quickly push any "before it all happened" backup copies out of the storage. If you turn OFF System Restore, all existing backups are immediately deleted and no new ones are made.

System Restore is intended for when you know you're making a change, as when you add a new program or new hardware. If the "new" thing totally screws you, you have (perhaps) an ability to go back to before what you did. It's of little use if you run into something that crumbles over a few, or several, reboots. In order to save a go-back condition, for use in the rust-rot-and-crumble scenario, you have to have done a manual backup occasionally, and very few people know or remember to do that. By the time a problem is discovered, there's no useful system point to restore.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: John O'L
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 11:55 PM

Scrump, I have had my XP freeze up when my son has left games running on the the taskbar.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: John O'L
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 11:57 PM

I didn't mean to post that, I meant to add:

It's a simple problem but I've not yet found the solution. He still does it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: treewind
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 03:38 AM

Perhaps MS are installing crashware with their latest XP updates to encourage you to downgrade to Vista.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Grab
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 05:47 AM

Worth checking for hardware problems. Try reseating all cards, memory and connectors, and check that all fans are blowing properly.

Also use msconfig to check what's being run at startup. Could be something strange being run in the background which kicks off at some point.

When it hangs, have you fired up task manager? What does it say is taking all the CPU?

Graham.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 06:00 AM

I've noticed how my machine which is fairly well specced will crawl and when I look at the task manager theres an awful lot going on that doesnt seem to be of any relevance to the task in hand. What needs to run to keep XP functioning with least cpu activity

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 06:27 AM

Thanks for the replies so far. I realise there are all sorts of reasons for these problems, and pinning it down won't be easy.

What happens is, whatever I'm doing on the computer, I find that windows won't minimise, or if I click on items on the taskbar, instead of restoring them, nothing happens on the screen. If I do Ctrl-Alt-Del to get Task Manager up on the screen, I can usually do this, and I can then start removing tasks in an attempt to find out if any of them are causing the problem. Of course I don't attempt to remove any that I know are essential, but like most PCs, mine is suffering from lots of bloatware that seems to run unnecessarily. Usually I can't see any particular 'culprit', and the System Idle Process seems to be taking up 99% of the CPU, as normal. But something is stopping the windows from minimising/restoring normally. After a while, even Task Manager won't respond, and repeated Ctrl-Alt-Del has no effect. Pressing the restart button has no effect either, and I have to physically power off the PC and restart manually.

It seems to happen after a while that a Windows PC gets full of bloatware (stuff you foolishly installed and then don't use, but can't properly get rid of afterwards), and there seems no alternative but to do a cleane install and start from scratch. I'm getting near that stage now, as I think it's overdue. It's just that, like most users, I'd rather be using the PC to do things I want, than waste a lot of time getting the sodding thing to work!

As I said, I have checked for adware, spyware and viruses, and nothing has been found (and I believe my anti-virus and adware/spyware software is up to date), so I don't believe that's the problem - I think it's just Windows having got itself into a mess after a few years. I had this on my old system, and got a new HDD, installed a new version of Windows, and then gradually transferred across stuff from the old HDD. It took ages though, but I guess sooner or later I'll have to bite the bullet.

But meanwhile, if anyone has any other ideas as the what the problem could be, or what things I could check for, please let me know.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:06 AM

if anyone has any other ideas

My cat knocked the mouse onto the floor this morning then danced on the keyboard.
This seems to have scared the computer so much that it's working like greased lightning . . .

get a cat . . .

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:09 AM

Got one - it's all I can do to keep him off the keyboard when I'm using the PC :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: dermod in salisbury
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:40 AM

Maybe not relevant, but I am on XP SP2 and have started experiencing both freeze and crash problems in the last few weeks and other odd happenings. The Microsoft advice is that the cause usually lies in a recently installed driver that is flawed or unsuitable for the Windows version, so its recommends disabling the last new software/hardware installed to check the result. In my case this was an automatic connectivity update from aol. Aol has behaved oddly ever since, but their support people deny it is anything to do with them as it is still possible for me to connect. Computer problems that come out of the blue are very frustrating, solutions hard to find. In may case, aol may not be the guilty party, but I am strongly considering binning it just in case.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 07:50 AM

Perhaps MS are installing crashware with their latest XP updates to encourage you to downgrade to Vista.

Sadly, that wouldn't surprise me at all, treewind. The only reason I still use ZoneAlarm is to make sure Windows can't download updates without me knowing about it. I would (more or less, subject to any loopholes not yet discovered!) trust the Windows firewall to protect me against unauthorised third party access to my system, but I certainly dont trust it to protect me from Microsoft themselves (either to download stuff I don't want or need, or to upload private information from my system to them).

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 08:12 AM

Most cases that I've seen where Windows locks up and won't respond to Task Manager or to repeated Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot appear to come from memory overwrites. One program writes into the RAM area that another program is using, and when the other program that thinks it owns that space tries to fetch what it put there, it gets garbage from the program that overwrote it.

This should be quite rare with programs that are "approved" for the Windows version you're using, although even if you use only fully qualified programs it can happen. It should be extremely rare with certified programs, especially on WinXP.

The few "approved/qualified/certified" programs that cause lockups are, in my experience, nearly always games; but others cite some add-on "utilities," especially when you have lots of them. WinXP (especially in Pro) generally has built in diagnostic and management tools that are much more complete than in prior versions, and if you can find them and learn how to use them, there's very little real justification for "extra helpers" that may have been necessary with earlier versions.

Lots of programs that run quite normally are not "certified" compatible, since that requires submitting code and testing results to Microsoft and getting them to agreee - and costs a little bit. Programs from reliable vendors who assert that they're "for WinXP" generally can be trusted, so it can't be said that you can or should only use stuff that Microsoft has approved, but you do need to be reasonable about it. A lot of freeware/shareware is reasonably compatible, but some isn't. Excessive reliance on "special programs" to do things that WinXP is fully capable of doing for you is a common cause of "vague and intermittent problems."

Programs carried over from an earlier Windows version may have problems running with WinXP, since there are some differences in how processes are executed in WinXP. WinXP does not permit programs to access either the hard drive or RAM directly without specific program features that were not required by earlier Windows versions.

Copying a program that was installed under an earlier version often will not get the needed Registry entries to permit and properly to keep track of the direct memory accesses that older programs used fairly frequently, when the programs are run in WinXP and in the presence of other programs running at the same time.

WinXP also occasionally wants bits and pieces of the program to be in specific locations outside the main program folder. It usually will "hunt up" a file that's not where it should be, but sometimes - especially with a .dll - it may create a new one, resulting in duplicate and sometimes conflicting files.

It's generally recommended that programs should be installed, usually from the original program disks (or from a downloaded "install file,") in order to "register" the functions the program requires so it will run nicely with other programs.

Some programs are simple enough that copying the program files from one drive to another won't do any damage, but it's difficult to be sure when that's true and when it isn't. Sometimes you can set the properties on a program you brought over from an earlier version to have it "Run As Win98" and performance will be improved - or at least interference with other programs will be minimized; but it's difficult to tell when this is really going to work.

Some older programs that appear to run properly without being limited with a "Run As" property may actually interfere with other programs, and locking them down to the earlier version mode may help prevent the interference - but it's difficult to tell when this will help.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 10:24 AM

What's the humidity level in your house, Scrump? Could the problem be simple static electricity?

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 10:31 AM

I don't think so, leeneia. The environment the computer is in hasn't changed in the few years I've had this particular computer. I'm pretty sure it's software not hardware. As I said, Windows systems seem to gradually deteriorate over that sort of time, where things get installed and then improperly removed (they seem to leave garbage in the registry, etc.)

Talking of which - can anyone recommend a good (and hopefully inexpensive!) registry cleanup utility? I remember having one a few years ago, but I thought there may be a better one around these days?

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Gulliver
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 02:08 PM

I've had a similar problem with ME, but then I've got dozens of apps on the machine and often run over a dozen of them at the same time so am not surprised when the puter freezes. I may be stating the obvious but one cause was simply running out of space on my hard drive. Something else that seemed to slow down the computer was if I had a large number of files in the recycle bin, or a dodgy USB connection or CD drive, or lots of temp internet files.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Schantieman
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 02:17 PM

How can you tell, from the Processes list in Task Manager, which programs are needed and which aren't?   There always seem to be loads of them, most of which I haven't told it to run. No doubt some of them are useful and some aren't.

I get it locking up for several seconds or a minute or so too.   And recently the mouse pointer as sometimes drifted over to the left and stayed there until I unplug the (USB) mouse and plug it back in again.

And......
                                        ...but that'll do for now.


Steve

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Jim Lad
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 02:32 PM

I unloaded a lot of junk recently, for the same reason. I then defragmented three times in a row although some tell me it doesn't really do anything for you. A long time ago, I remember that my media player was storing everything it played so I keep an eye on that and don't touch the web-cam anymore. Nice toy but it just bungs things up. Hope you figure it out.
Cheers
Jim

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 03:27 PM

A good list of free clean up tools can be found at this site:

http://tech.luke.googlepages.com/

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 03:55 PM

You'll have to check and see what your situation is, but in general USB devices shouldn't be unplugged and plugged back in without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" button down in the right hand end of the Start bar. (Which may be tricky to do if it's your mouse that's not working?) Some USB devices don't show up there, and in that case you're probably okay unplugging and replugging, but with ones that do show up, if you don't "unhook" them before you disconnect, the machine thinks its a new device when you plug back in, and creates a new hook for it.

You can end up with a half-dozen extraneous USB Hubs/Ports in the system that aren't doing anything, except eating cycles to check and see if the device has come back.

If a device has worked, you can uninstall the driver, reboot, and be reasonably sure that PnP will reinstall the right driver when it detects the device during startup. If you uninstall all of the USB hubs/ports and reboot, the reinstall should be just the ones you need.

The clinker is, if you're using a USB mouse, when you uninstall the USB hub it's running off of, the mouse will quite - and may it be the last thing to come back after you reboot, so you need to be prepared to "do it the hard way" (keysboard only) to shut down and restart.

Start|Settings|Control Panel, Double Click "System," Click the Hardware Tab, Click Device Manager.

If you don't have an obvious excess of USB things, just exit; but if it looks like too many, click each hub and select uninstall, and when they're all gone, see if you can figure out how to reboot (if you've accidentally turned off the mouse, like I did about a half hour ago).

I actually only had one extra port that apparently popped up because I changed an existing connection to a different hub with the system shut down, and when I booted it added a new port but left the old one there. It lost an external USB hard drive because of it, but all's well once again.

I was also reminded during my little minormaintenancesaga that leaving a CD in the drive can significantly slow down the boot. A disk in another drive that's in the boot sequence (in ROM) usually will get an error message that there's no boot sector; but WinXP usually ignores a non-bootable CD - after it's searched the entire CD (or DVD) to be sure there isn't startup info on it. The search can add 10 or 20 seconds(?) to getting started up (at least on my old machine, and probably depending some on what kind of stuff is on the CD).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Scrump
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 04:48 AM

How can you tell, from the Processes list in Task Manager, which programs are needed and which aren't?   There always seem to be loads of them, most of which I haven't told it to run. No doubt some of them are useful and some aren't.

What I did was to search for the task name (e.g."wxyzblah.exe") in google, and I found various sites where people have logged info about them, said whether they are necessary or not, whether they can be safely removed, etc.

When I get the 'freeze', I tried terminating a lot of the tasks that were considered unnecessary, but it didn't help with the problem :-(

I've tried removing them right after rebooting, to see if removing them stops the problem from happening, but it doesn't :-(

One thing somebody might be able to answer: I seem to get lots of copies of a task called svchost.exe, some of them marked 'local'; some 'system' and some 'network' (this is from my memory so I hope I got that right).

I gather these are necessary, but does anyone know what they are for? When I got the freeze problem, I tried removing these but they just seem to restart themselves so I stopped trying to remove them.

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:46 AM

Windows uses lots of little bits and scraps of program that are treated as "objects." Some of them can't run by themselves, but can be "clipped into" a "host" package. The "host" sort of does the bookkeeping to tell the object it carries when to start, stop, or spin its wheels. I'm guessing a bit, but I believe the svshost is the package that can contain the snippets to make them work.

A crude analogy would be that the "host" is the bucket that has the handles that the system can grab onto, but the bucket can have any color of paint in it that's needed. Lots of "processes" and "services" may be turned on and off by service hosts that are all similarly named, but that carry different innards to determine which services they work on. You have to figure out what's in the bucket to tell whether that service can be turned on or off.

But that's really just a guess.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: sleepyjon
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:58 AM

As JohnInKansas noted (earlier post - 04 March) System Restore only keeps a few restore points, and Windows will create them whenever it thinks fit, so they are soon discarded.

Having in my ME days used a little utility (RescueMe I think) which allowed me to manage restore points, discarding more recent ones and keeping older strategic ones, and even archiving them off to floppies (happy days!) I find XP's facilities a big step backwards.

Anyone know where XP keeps its restore data, and could I copy out and later back in the restore points I really want to keep? - or prevent Windows creating them without asking me first?

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: Schantieman
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 10:50 AM

If, John, unplugging USB devices without telling the machine first buggers something up, what happens when (about four or five times daily) I unplug my USB hub (connected to mouse, keyboard & printer) to take my tablet PC from my office into a lab where I connect it to a (non-USB) projector?

Steve

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 11:00 AM

Have you considered an Aran Sweater? Since we're running that other thread now I thought it might be a possible solution........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 12:23 PM

Shantieman -

Your question first, because it's simplest.

There should be an icon at the lower right of your Windows screen, that looks like a green arrow over a gray/grey rectangle. If you hover over it, you should see an "info balloon" that says "Safely Remove Hardware." If you click (or double click depending on your setup) it should pop up a list of devices that need to be shut down in order to disconnect them safely while the computer is running. They should be mostly USB devices. This utility is for removing items while the computer is running, so that the computer won't look for devices that arent' there.

Any esternal device that isn't on the list should be "hot swappable," which requires a bit of extra pre-arrangement by the manufacturer, and isn't often provided except for some laptop-specific setups, so you may have USB devices that don't appear.

Some things, especially USB External Drives, will tell you they can't be disconnected immediately. This just means that they shouldn't be disconnected while the computer is running.

Your hub most likely won't appear there, and the "official instructions" will probably tell you that the computer should be turned off before disconnecting it.

As long as the computer is turned off when you do it, you can disconnect/connect anything without going through the "safely disconnect" procedure, since PnP will restart whatever is there at the time of the fresh bootup, and will ignore what's been removed.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Annoying freezing computer problem (XP)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 01:06 PM

sllepyjon -

You cannot access the backups that System Restore makes. They are sequestered in a tightly secured area that is intended only for access by the operating system.

One difficulty with this is that even most AV programs can't scan what's in the System Restore backups so in a few cases, if a backup was made while an infection was present, a restore could reinstall it, even if the AV removed it from the computer sometime after the backup was made. That's a rather special condition, and malware removal instructions normally will tell you when it's necessary to turn off System Restore - which instantly deletes all existing backups in that location.

A description of the general features of the Registry is at:

Description of the Microsoft Windows registry, Microsoft KB256986.

It's suggested that you read the article, but the main thing is that article contains links to four separate articles:

How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows ????

Choose and read the one appropriate for your Windows Version.

No "handy utility" has ever been needed to do a separate, permanently saved, registry backup in any Windows version. The instructions you'll find at the linked articles in the KB will show you any differences peculiar to your Windows version; but in general terms all versions require only that you run regedit.exe and Export a copy of the Registry.

Start|Run and type "regedit" in the box, and hit enter.

Click File, and then Export (with the top entry, usually "My Computer" in the Registry Tree selected), and hit Enter.

You'll be asked for a "destination" folder where you want the export to be saved. In some versions a default filename will appear, but in others you'll get a blank box where you need to give it a name. You can edit the default filename of the export, and I'd suggest adding the date at one end or the other, or including the date in whatever name you give it, so you'll be able to tell when you did the backup. You can leave the file extension blank, and the correct .reg will be added when the export is saved.

After you hit Enter again or click an OK, you'll have a backup file wherever you tell it to save it.

Depending on your Windows version, you may need to select "Exit without saving changes," but in later versions that option will not appear if you haven't actually made a change.

The exported file will have the file extension .reg. This is an executable file and if you double-click it, it probably will look like nothing happened; but the contents of that file will have been written back into your Registry. This is all you do to restore from that backup, but can also be a good way to mess things up if you do it by accident, so it's suggested that you export to an "out of the way" location where you're not likely to play with the backup file(s) when you don't need to.

You should also pick one place to put all your backups, so that they don't get splattered around all over your drives.

John