System restore not working

Perhaps someone knows where in the Registry hives the settings are kept for Task Scheduler and can help you return it to old values.

For the future an additional way to save the Registry is to use ERUNT

It has worked well for me in every NT based flavor of Windows since NT server 4.
(The web site mentions Vista and W7 but I use it also in Windows 8.0)

If you haven't rebooted your machine since the restore point problem started
Last Known Good may be worth a try.

Greetings,
First thing I would do is trace back my steps and undo big system tweaks...
From a topic on TechNet: The full Topic:Here

To delete a task by using the Windows interface
If Task Scheduler is not open, start Task Scheduler. For more information, see Start Task Scheduler.
Find and click the task folder in the console tree that contains the task to delete.
In the console window, click the task to delete.
In the Actions pane, click Delete .
In the Confirm delete dialog box, click Yes .

OR use cmd:

schtasks /Delete /?

EDIT: Some Anti-Virus or defragging programs might cause System Restore not to work properly...Try to disable those programs for a while and turn off system restore and then back on.

thewolfe said:

also, the new machine. I'm having trouble with has "Status" as "Ready" and my old machine that's working okay has "Queued"

And another point, . This is a new Dell machine and I have not use their 'Backup and Recovery" program. might I do that since I don't have any restore points?

I'm not familiar with Dell backup. But often Preloaded Windows EOM machines the restore puts it to out of the box condition. Meaning all the demos and bloatware(if any) are back on. An alternative is to use an imaging program such as Macrrium Reflect.

Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)
has several free imaging program links

You can also use the Dell recovery. But I would read up exactly what it does.

What many do is uninstall programs they don't want. Install 3rd party programs they always use, tweak the system, then make a backup image to save the current state. Also backup images can be made as you go along to keep new tweaks and installs. It depends on how often you install new programs. Some people keep the same set of programs and use the image to return to that state and get rid of some of the clutter that Windows collects.

But if you like to keep adding freeware that strategy may not be as attractive as you lose changes. Some do a bit of both. :)