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How To Use the System Restore Utility with Windows Management Instrumentation in Windows XP

Article ID: 295299 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q295299

SUMMARY

This article describes how you can use the System Restore utility to create, enumerate, and restore previously created restore points by using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Requirements

To run WMI, you must have administrator privileges. You can use System Restore by means of WMI and the Srclient.dll file.

The following VBScript code excerpts are minimal examples. This code must not be implemented without prior error checking and full testing.

To Create a System Restore Point

'use WMI moniker and SystemRestore class
set SRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore")
CSRP = SRP.createrestorepoint ("this is a test", 0, 100)

To Disable or Enable System Restore for a Particular Drive

onoff = inputbox ("Do you want enable or disable System Restore?", "System Restore")
Drive = inputbox ("Which Drive would you like to take action on? Must type in format 'c:\'", 

"Drive to enable/disable")


set SRP = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:SystemRestore")

If onoff = "enable"  then
eSRP = SRP.enable(drive)
end if

If onoff = "disable" then
eSRP = SRP.disable(drive)
end if

To Enumerate System Restore Points on a Computer

set SRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default").InstancesOf ("systemrestore")
for each Point in SRP
msgbox point.creationtime & vbcrlf & point.description & vbcrlf & "Sequence Number= " & point.sequencenumber
next

The dates are returned in yyyymmddHHMMSS.mmmmmmsUUU format, where:

yyyy= a four digit year
mm= a two digit month
dd= a two digit day of the month
HH= a two digit hour of the day (00-23)
SS= seconds (00-59)
mmmmmm= microseconds
s= plus (+) or minus (-) sign to signify the positive or negative offset from coordinated universal time (UTC)
UUU= an offset in minutes that the originating time zone deviates from UTC

NOTE: You cannot filter items based on specific dates. The filter process begins at the first restore points and enumerates from that location. If you want to filter items, you need to script a filter to narrow down the dates that are based on the values that are returned.

To Roll Back to a Specific Restore Point

NOTE: Do not use this function without also calling a computer shutdown. System Restore may not work properly if a restart of the computer is not initiated immediately.

set SRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\Default:SystemRestore")
 eSRP = SRP.Restore(22) 'parameter passed is the sequence number of the restore point you want to roll back to.

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REFERENCES

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.

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