How effective and accurate is Windows 7 system restore?

Do you have a virus infection or registry problem, or is this a “what if” question?

Windows does a pretty good job of fixing its own registry problems unless you start screwing around with a chainsaw like CCleaner.

System restore works best after your system is screwed up by a botched install. That’s what I’ve used it for. It can rid you of some malware infections, but not all; it is no substitute for a good antivirus. It also uses a lot of disk space, so you want to keep the number of restore points at a minimum. It’s always good to manually set a restore point just before a software install, particularly if you’re installing something that’s bloated and/or requires multiple restarts and Internet updates. The chances of something blowing up are far greater then.

Thanks. I’ve had a bad experience with CC and would never use it again. It sounds like system restore would be just perfect as I would only use it if, as you mention, I did an install that I didn’t like or became too bloated. Yesterday was a good example. I installed IE9 only to find out it screwed with my desktop. Fortunately it uninstalled ok and my desktop went back to normal but it’s in cases like this where I’d like to just restore to a previous point in time.

@victord66 , word around the schoolyard is that IE9 is a horror. I use FireFox exclusively except for one VM client I need for work, that absolutely requires IE. I am still with IE7, BTW.