System Restore feature was first introduced in Windows Me operating system. With rising popularity, Microsoft shipped System Restore feature in Windows XP operating system also. Basically, System Restore is a monitoring application, which monitors changes to your PC and creates restore points, or records that can be used to bring back the computer to previous, stable state. System Restore allows you to undo something that was later found to have caused a problem. Whenever user starts System Restore to bring back stability to computer, personal files such as recent passwords, documents, emails, and files saved in My Documents folder are restored back. As mentioned earlier, System Restore makes use of Restore points to create points of restoration. Depending on the amount of disk space configured for storing these restoration points; a user can choose a restore point from the present date up to three weeks earlier.

System Restore is automatic and Windows XP automatically creates and saves information for the user and makes it available when and if it is necessary. This feature provides maximum safety for all users on a Windows XP computer. Now the key point is what makes System Restore works? Every time a restore point is created, System Restore takes a picture of Registry data and other key files. System Restore then notes the date and time in restore log and saves the information in a data archive located on the hard disk of the local computer. The archive is on the system's hard disk and is hidden from the user. As time passes, the number of restores grows, and when allotted hard disk space is used up, the old archives are deleted so that new archives can be saved.