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Jerry LFlag for United States of America

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Windows System Restore: Will It Delete Skype History Content?

Does anyone know if the Windows System Restore utility deletes files when you perform a restore?  I believe I have seen it do this.  I am especially concerned about my Outlook emails and Skype history files.  I don't want to lose Skype posts or emails acquired after the restore point.

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Thanks for all your input.  I especially appreciate the latter two very detailed replies.
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Thanks for the responses.  I know I've seen program files disappear that I had downloaded and placed in a personal data folder.  These may have been install files with .exe extension or .zip.  That's why my concern.  I'll have to experiment and see if the "Undo" works properly.
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Update:  I renamed two folders, on F:\.., with files and subfolders in it, and created copies on another drive, G:\...

I then restored to a restore point from yesterday.

First, I notice the two folders on F: were reverted to the original names.

Then, files were missing in the folders on G:.

That makes no sense at all.  If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to offer, but it seems to contradict your statements that user data files are not affected.

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The missing files are of the following (system type) extensions:

*.exe
*.ini
*.dll

But there are a couple of entire folders that were deleted, too.  These had only *.exe files, or shortcuts.

I believe, if I hadn't created the copy, those files would have been deleted from the original path on the F: drive.  That's the behavior I've suspected in the past, but never fully confirmed.
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Oh, and those files by the way were not installed files.  they were simply downloaded files.  They were not in any system folders or the C:\Program Files\ folder.

They were MY data folders, and should NOT have been touched.
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Regarding Skype & Firefox:

It looks like those files were NOT affected.  The Skype history of the different skype rooms were not missing any posts, and my Scrapbook plugin for Firefox has the latest captured web pages still in their proper places.
If you had files of the extension type .exe, .ini, and .dll, that you did not want reverted, then you probably should not have done the system restore. As per my post above. Those are the types of files affected by system restore.  But system restore shouldn't delete those files, only revert them back to a previous state.  Maybe there's something else going on...
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You did say, "It also can make changes to scripts, batch files, and other types of executable files on your computer."

I could understand if those files had been part of an installation.  However, they are simply files that were downloaded.  Sometimes they are part of a ZIP file that has been extracted.  However, there are times when a program is downloaded as a self-extracting zip file in the form of a .exe.  Those are the files that are being deleted.  That is the unexpected behavior I am referring to.  I suppose System Restore really has no way of knowing, except that an actual installation will usually make changes in the Registry.

Nonetheless, now that I know about this behavior, I will take the necessary precautions before doing the restore, such as burning to a CD, flash drive, or other removable medium.

Thanks for your comments.
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ASKER

Microsoft System Restore FAQ:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/bb264753.aspx

List of Files Affected by System Restore:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/bb264753.aspx

It would be nice if there were a log file that shows what files were deleted during the restore operation, and a way to recover any of those files.