can<\/i> do is talk about the script. With that in mind, here\u2019s a script that enables System Restore on a computer running Windows XP:<\/p>\nstrComputer = \".\"\nSet objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\\" & strComputer & \"\\root\\default\")\nSet objItem = objWMIService.Get(\"SystemRestore\")\nerrResults = objItem.Enable(\"\")\n<\/pre>\nYou can see why, on a busy day, we chose to answer this particular question: just a few lines of code and we\u2019ve got ourselves a column. The script itself starts out in typical fashion, connecting to the WMI service on the local computer. (Although, like all good WMI scripts, this one will also work against remote computers; just assign the name of that computer to the variable strComputer.) One thing to watch out for, however: unlike most WMI scripts this one doesn\u2019t connect to the root\\cimv2 namespace; instead, it connects to the root\\default<\/b> namespace. Why? That\u2019s easy: that\u2019s where all the System Restore WMI classes reside.<\/p>\n
After making the connection we use the Get<\/b> method to bind to the SystemRestore<\/b> class; that\u2019s what we do here:<\/p>\nSet objItem = objWMIService.Get(\"SystemRestore\")\n<\/pre>\nAt that point we can enable System Restore on all drives by simply calling the Enable<\/b> method and passing an empty string (\u201c\u201d) as the sole parameter.<\/p>\n
Anyway, thanks again for the question, RL, we have to \u2013 well, yes, like we said, that does enable System Restore on all drives. Could we enable System Restore on a particular drive? Well, like we said we\u2019re running kind of late here \u2013 oh, what the heck. Here\u2019s a script that enables System Restore only for drive D on the local computer:<\/p>\n
strComputer = \".\"\nSet objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\\" & strComputer & \"\\root\\default\")\nSet objItem = objWMIService.Get(\"SystemRestore\")\nerrResults = objItem.Enable(\"D:\\\")\n<\/pre>\nYes, it\u2019s remarkably similar to the first script we showed you; in fact, the only difference lies with the parameter passed to the Enable method. To enable System Restore on all drives we pass an empty string to this method; to enable System Restore only on drive D we pass the Enable method this parameter: D:\\<\/b>. In other words, we pass the drive letter (D<\/b>) followed by :\\<\/b>. To enable System Restore on drive E and drive E only we\u2019d use this line of code:<\/p>\nerrResults = objItem.Enable(\"E:\\\")\n<\/pre>\nEtc. <\/p>\n
We really have to go now, so \u2013 what\u2019s that? What if you later want to disable<\/i> System Restore on a computer? You know, we really don\u2019t have time to \u2026. Look, we\u2019ll make you a deal: one more script and then we have to go. OK? OK. Here\u2019s a script that disables System Restore for all the drives on a computer:<\/p>\nstrComputer = \".\"\nSet objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\\" & strComputer & \"\\root\\default\")\nSet objItem = objWMIService.Get(\"SystemRestore\")\nerrResults = objItem.Disable(\"\")\n<\/pre>\nAgain, very similar to the first script we showed you; in fact, the only difference is that this time we call the Disable<\/b> method instead of the Enable method. And, yes, as a matter of fact you can<\/i> disable System Restore for a specific drive. Tired of running System Restore on drive D? Then don\u2019t:<\/p>\nstrComputer = \".\"\nSet objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\\" & strComputer & \"\\root\\default\")\nSet objItem = objWMIService.Get(\"SystemRestore\")\nerrResults = objItem.Disable(\"D:\\\")\n<\/pre>\nThat\u2019s all we have time for; we absolutely have<\/i> to go. Although we probably should add that, prior to SOS, the international distress call was CQD<\/b>. The letters CQ represented a general message that was sent to all stations, with the letter D indicating \u201cdistress.\u201d In other words, CQD meant \u201cAttention all stations, we have a distress call.\u201d In fact, the ill-fated Titanic originally sent out several CQD calls before trying SOS. As it turns out \u2013 wait a second, where are you going? What do you mean you\u2019re too busy to stay and listen to our story? Come on, surely you can make time for \u2013 this will only take a minute \u2013 are you sure you can\u2019t stay just \u2013 oh. Well, OK. We can always save this story for a future column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I enable Windows XP\u2019s System Restore using a script? — RL Hey, RL. Thanks for the question; the Scripting Guy who writes this column is running way late today, the clock is ticking, and he was desperately in need of a question a he could answer without having to use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,3,723,5],"class_list":["post-66123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-desktop-management","tag-scripting-guy","tag-system-restore","tag-vbscript"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I enable Windows XP\u2019s System Restore using a script? — RL Hey, RL. Thanks for the question; the Scripting Guy who writes this column is running way late today, the clock is ticking, and he was desperately in need of a question a he could answer without having to use […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
<\/p>\n![\"Spacer\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/spacer.gif\")
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
![\"Script](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/ad.jpg\" "\\"Script")
<\/a><\/p>\n