Computer restarts automatically??? Here is your solution.

Yet another call for help with a troublesome computer, this time it is from a friend whose computer restarts automatically.First let me explain how the issue began.

My friend had installed a couple of softwares on his Windows XP Pro desktop, and he restarted the computer after the installation was completed. But the computer would automatically restart after logging into Win XP.He tried it 4 or 5 times and asked a colleague who advised him to re-install XP.
He was told by his friend that his OS would have gotten corrupted and that he had to do a clean install of XP. My friend was dead-scared at the thought of losing all his files,downloads,docs and called me for help.

I advised him to restart the computer and tap the F8 key several times till he came to the Boot-menu, and asked him to try LKGC (Last known good configuration).LKGC uses the most recent login of windows, and since the computer restarted AFTER logging into windows,it did not solve the problem. When i asked him if he had tried logging into safe mode, he said no. Then on my request he tried it, and the computer was stable at safe mode and shut down was normal too. I asked him to run safe mode again and asked him to select system restore. He chose the previous day as the Restore point date and initiated the recovery, after the restore process, the computer restarted in normal boot up mode and the issue was resolved.

The problem was one of his softwares (they are commercial softwares, i will not name them) corrupted the registry during installation and caused his system to crash. The simplest way to remove a software that you are unable to remove though any uninstaller is a System recovery.

Tips on using System Restore:
But please make sure you select a date that is closest to the present day, you will lose many updates and files by choosing an older date. And a system restore point is valid only for 90 days after which it will be replaced by a fresh restore point. Most programs create a restore point automatically during installation. But i would advise that you manually create a restore point atleast once in 10 or 15 days to be safe. It takes only a few seconds.

PS:Sometimes the restore process would take a long time to complete. This depends on the restore point that you have chosen. Older restore points would take longer to complete while the latest restore points are the fastest .