Windows System Restore feature, -important step for Troubleshooting.

[Knowlege level: Beginner to Intermediate experience]

If you are a Windows operating system user (WinXP, Vista), you should be aware of an extremely powerful tool that can save you a lot of hassle. This tool is called “System Restore”. It comes standard with the operating system so you don’t have to spend extra money on any additional software.

We have found the restore feature extremely useful when troubleshooting strange behavior related to a recent driver installation, or computer running extremely slow (virus?)or popup ads making your life miserable. In many cases, it can happen because some registry (Window's database of configurations) get corrupted, or some malware etc. gets installed accidentally.

In such cases, the easiest troubleshooting method would be helpful shareware or free utilities like Adaware, Spybot,or Ccleaner first [I will post info about these later], but if these fail to resolve the issue -restoring the system to a date when you know things were functioning properly might do the trick.
*Note- this should not delete any files/documents etc. you have saved in your 'My Documents' folders, it will only 'undo' any installed software, and registry settings altered since your chosen restore point.

Here is the step-by-step to find the System Restore Feature:
Click All Programs => Accessories => System Tools (or sometimes something else) => System Restore. See the picture below from a Windows XP system.

To restore the system to an earlier date, activate the System Restore Tool and select the date to which you want to restore the system to. See attached picture of this in VISTA below:

That's it! Just follow the prompts, and Windows will begin the restoring. It takes about 5-15 minutes to complete the process, and will require an auto-reboot. See whether your issue is fixed. Many times it does, but if not - then click on the 'Forums' link on the sidebar, to ask your question there.