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#11
System restore points are not always the answer to recovering in the situations in which you've really done some bad harm to your system. They're good for "simple problems", in my opinion, but I don't really trust the results. Doesn't seem to either add or delete everything I would have expected.
Much more super-100% dependable is "system image". Take these at least once a week if not more often, and you'll never be SOL.
Make one right after you complete your Win7 install with all the 3rd-party software and customization tweaks, and you can always start from this image if you really had to "start over". It's a lot easier to start from this point, than from ground zero, assuming no major hardware changes since the image was made.
If you want to retain multiple system images on disk (e.g. one above, when you're freshly installed, others on a daily or weekly basis, etc.) you have to either pick different target drives or manually rename the parent directory yourself. Win7 only supports one "official" system image folder of the "official name" on a given hard drive.
But.. "system image", is your lifesaver. Can't take them often enough, if you have the space.
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