Solved Restore Point prior to download

I feel stupid but need to ask. I'm new to Win7 and find all the help articles I've read are just confusing, so: do I need to Create a Restore Point before downloading a batch file (found elsewhere in this board to enable WinMail),then install WinMail? Or just rely on the auto Restore Point that Windows7 is supposed to make?
Boy, I sure hope my question makes sense.
Thank you.

If you are concerned about the download, I would create a restore point manually. One is not always created automatically. It depends on the application.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Chances are a restore point will be created, but if you really want to be certain, there's nothing to stop you creating your own.

At worst, you've only created a duplicate restore point. At best you've got a way of repairing your system if something did go wrong with the download and subsequent installation.

I just checked my System Restore & it shows the last one as 'auto' yesterday so I hope I didn't mess up my PC 'cuz I never made mine before I went ahead with download, just assumed it would make one, oops.
I do remember being unsure of just how to operate making my own here in Windows 7. There was something added or ? different compared to XP, I used to do it all the time in XP.

You can make as many restore points (automatic or manual) as you like. The shadowstorage (that's where the restore points are being kept) is a FiFo (first in, first out) storage area. So the size of the shadowstorage will determine how many recent ones will be kept..

Figure between 250MB and 1GB per restore point. Usually 15% of your C partition would be an appropriate amount of shadowstorage. But if your C partition is very big (like close to 1GB) a lesser amount will suffice.

You can also create restore points on data partitions. That is handy to retrieve lost files with Shadow Explorer. But if your data resides on the C partition (which is a very bad practice), Shadow Explorer can also retrieve lost user and system files from there.

You may find this tutorial useful: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

You can also run these commands at the command prompt, which you need to run with elevated privileges i.e. run as administrator.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html

Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=X
Reduces Shadow Storage to specified amount where X is the size in GB e.g. 2GB and C is the Windows drive.

Vssadmin List ShadowStorage
Lista maximum storage allocated for restore points

Vssadmin List Shadows
Lists all restore points already written

Vssadmin List Allocated
Lists used storage to date

Grits,
In answer to your question:
Create a restore point prior to installing a program/running a BAT file.

Microsoft will auto create for its own files that are installed during a Microsoft update.


CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT
Win | type Create Restore Point | ENTER |
CREATE | type a name for the restore point |
CREATE button | CLOSE | OK

WIN is the key with the wavy Microsoft flag on top.

Thank you, all. I did assume that a point would be automatic.

Glad that we could be of assistance even if it was as the bearer of bad tidings. Bad news is bettern than no news.