A handy, but little known feature about Windows Vista is that it can send you email notifications of particular Windows events. Go to the Start menu and right-click on “Computer” then select “Manage”. In the Computer Management window that appears, expand “Event Viewer” > “Windows Logs” > “Application”. In the right-hand pane you will see the Application events which have occurred in Windows. This includes startup, shutdown and certain processes and services starting. Select an event which interests you and then click the “Attach Task To This Event” link on the right-hand side of the window. Follow through the wizard to set notification options and you are able to tell Windows Vista to send an email when this event occurs in the future.

Before installing some software on my computer I set a restore point. As it turns out I needed to restore the system following the software installation but when I attempt the system restore a message appears saying “Restoration Incomplete”. I tried other system restore points which were saved but they all yielded the same result. However, I found an article which suggested turning off System Restore (thus deleting all the restore points) and then turning this back on. After doing this I am now able to restore to previous restore points. So it seems that Windows has difficulty restoring when there are many restore points. Is it possible to limit the number of restore points which Windows creates and also delete individual restore points? The computer is running Windows XP Service Pack 2. (more…)