System Restore Ponts?

I have a friend whose net book is acting up: Slow, gives her error messages on boot( can't remember them off hand.) stuff like that.

She lives in a different state now, so I can't really get the machine to look at it.

I was wondering if she could just restore her system to a previous point.

I have never used a System restore point before, so a few questions.

1) Would Windows 7 Professional automatically create a restore point, or did she have to create on manually?

2) Would this fix her problem? It does not seem to be malware related, due to all the scans I had her run came up clean after she ran something, will ask what it was.

3) Would she have to reinstall an OS?

I think whatever service windows prompted her to use said that there was a problem with Open Office, so she uninstalled that.

Thanks,
Spock96

 

No, Win 7 needs to have System Restore turned on.

Right click Computer icon on the desktop and go to Properties. Click the Advanced System Settings text. This opens System Properties, click the Configure button.
Select the drive (C normally) by clicking it to select it and then click the Configure button.

I would click the top item, Restore system settings and previous versions of files. Any new or modified files/apps after that date would have to be backed up from removable media or in the case of apps, reinstalled.

If a restore point exists (click System Restore to find out) the machine will be put back to where it was on that date.

Maybe. If a hard drive is showing its age, no it won't.

This is a good way to get a clean, fast machine again. Back up the files first to removable media.

HOWEVER:
How much free space does the disk have? Has it been defragged lately? I would try those first after running CCleaner.

 

Have her schedule a chkdsk run at startup.

You will probably need to get some specific information about what the error messages are.
They could be related to obsolete or corrupted software installations or many other things.

Before playing Russian Roulette with restore points, do some common maintenance first, like CCleaner, as cipher suggested.

Since you can not be there with her to help, she can refer to some tutorials here that will walk her through it.

Here is one:
How to Make Your Computer Run Like New in 4 Easy Steps - by Major Attitude