Solved! Auto SRP prob

[Clifford L Sanford]

W10 does not create automatic system restore points. It will perform manual point creations. I checked the task scheduler and found it was turned on and it is turning the PC off every night as scheduled. Help please.

 

[webworkings]

The system usually only makes them at significant points, and more and more it tends to make them only when there is a Windows update of some sort.

There are a few other ways to set it to automatically create restore points, but some are better not used unless you really know what you are doing.

You can find a few ways to set it up here.. https://www.howtogeek.com/278388/ho...lly-create-a-system-restore-point-at-startup/

I would, however, suggest not using the first option mentioned (editing the registry) because you can do way more damage there than good.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Tnx, the web page https/www.howtogeek.com/278388/how-to-make-windows-automatically-create-a-system-restore-point-at-startup/ I found to be the best and most complete description on creating a auto SRP's. I used the suggested hack. A check for the presence of SRP's for two consecutive days. It appears that the PC still did not show any auto SRP's created. The list showed a single manual SRP made by me 5 days before the suggested procedure. Additionally the PC had not received any updates, including third party updates. Before the second days attempt, I increased the amount of memory space for the Task Scheduler to use. What's a solution to the this auto SRP creation failure? Tnx

 

[webworkings]

Other than what I suggested I cannot think of another you can easily use. If the system is not creating them regularly, then perhaps there is something wrong with the system.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

The setup procedure seemed to go well. I encountered no difficult with it. You theorize that something maybe wrong with the system. I presume that you mean Windows 10 home addition or the registry hack. Could the downloaded hack is not compatible with the W10 home edition. If so, should I try making a hack manually. Are you suggesting that it's could be a hardware problem or a conflict with an app like Backup Maker that also runs at start up. Does each task require a shortcut in the startup folder. Could it be that the task is worded to say to begin at a manual start up, but needs to be able to begin after being in sleep mode? I have another W10 laptop, and now plan on testing the procedure on it. Tnx

 

[webworkings]

It could easily be anything extra installed or changes made. Since the system should normally do the restore points regularly. In my case, and none were done by me intentionally, just done by the system, there are 9 restore points in the last 3 weeks. So if yours is doing so less often (showing less when you go into system restore and also checking the show more restore points box) then something is inhibiting it. I have made no 'alterations' to make it do them that often, but I also don't have any programs or items installed to try and mess with it either.

To be honest, more restore points than that would be overkill. I mean that is 3 a week. Having them done every day or every time the system is started would be way to much.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Follow up to the system restore and task scheduler issue.

Titan. The results included the "show more points". Only a few manual backup existed. Conventional wisdom from forums, etc seem to agree that the default number of auto SRP's is 7 days.
I agree that daily SRP is excessive, three a week is OK. I was getting 0 SRP's for at least 45 days. I concluded that daily SRP's might be possible. The howtogeek.com web page was, was found to be a good source. but it did not solve the problem. I ran their procedure on my other laptop and got the same results. In the process I encounter a discrepancy that might be the cause of the failure. The first attempt, W10 never asked for a user account. Contradicting the Geek website. W10 appeared to not need it. Both PC's have one account, my admin account. The account access on the Microsoft website is the same.
Other conventional wisdom claims that access to Microsoft and W10 needed only those two accounts. On the second try the scheduler requested and rejected my admin password.
I have had experiences when logging either accounts W10 would sometimes fail. I had concluded (guess) that conventional wisdom was not true. and that other unknown passwords existed.
Finally, another online search, I got a posting that confirmed my suspicion. It had instructions on find it. For others that maybe reading this and having task scheduler problems, below is the procedure I found.

1. First go to the search bar and type cmd
2. When the command window appears type whoami at the prompt
3. Press enter
4. A different command window will appear, look at /the last line and you will find the hidden account password.
5. Don't be surprised that it appears to be goofy. In my case it was an abbreviation of my e-mail address. It's like gift wrapping a key to your home and presenting it to the computer hackers.

In my case the above was not enough to correct the problem. Something else is wrong. Best of luck.

 

[webworkings]

Perhaps something else you have installed is blocking the restore point creation. I find it rather odd that they aren't being created when there are updates or changes to the system. That is the whole purpose of the program. To create a restore point prior to any change that could seriously effect the system through the installation or update of something.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Another Update

Titan I am strongly leaning toward agreement with your assessment so far.

Checked for third party conflicts nothing appeared unusual, it does not seem to be very likely. Both my PC's have only three apps installed on both. They are: Google Chrome 76.0.3809.100 , Quicken R20.15 and Adobe Reader 9. Timing of the issues doesn't coincide to any changes that might have been made.

Checked the Windows Update History, and found that the last update occurred in the first week of July. About mid July a news report stated that Microsoft had found a significant problem, and they were issuing a critical update. I recall at startup one morning it was being installed, but it does not appear now the update history.

I then remember that Windows Defender had stopped getting virus updates at or near the date the other updates seemed to have stopped. I also recalled that when W10 came out, it appeared that Microsoft seemed to have merged Defender and the Firewall together. It seemed like you could not enable either of them without the other. I had suspected that in XP the updates was going around the firewall. Could it be, W10 this is no longer true and can Defender control the firewall and block auto updates. A check showed that the firewall was still set at its default value of medium.

Thus I ran a manual W10 update as a test. At the start of this update W10 seemed to show t that three updates were needed. The first showed that it was a Defender update. The two remaining were labeled as NET frameworks updates. When downloading was finished it appeared that only the last two were actually downloaded. After installation and restarting, it only occurred twice seemingly confirming that.

Without anything pointing to a cause, it appears that I have only two reaming options.

1. Find a way to force the entire W10 operating system back to its defaults. I fear that this might end up causing more and new problems.
2. Reinstall the entire operating system and hope that fixes it. 🙁

 

[webworkings]

You can try using the oldest restore point you can find, if it is prior to the problem starting and see if that resolves it. Other than this, or the installation mentioned, you are left with your last option of reinstalling it all.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Update: The oldest system restore point did not correct the problem. During the latest attempt to create a daily auto SRP task it was found that the previous password was no accepted. A recheck in the previously described process whoami showed that the password had changed. This latest password was also rejected by the task scheduler. It appeared that the hidden password is not consistent and changes periodically. In this instance the user name was also different. A check of the user name pull down menu revealed a second user name partially resembling the first password found in the whoami process. At this point I have come to believe that the failure of the auto task may be do to a problem with W10 recognition of the correct account and password.

 

[webworkings]

It is possible. However they should not be changing or altered unless done so by you, by someone else who has access, or you have something on the computer that is the cause. I would look into resolving this issue first before continuing with the other.

Please note, we here cannot help with such issues (regarding passwords and log ins). I would suggest contacting Microsoft or your computers manufacturer.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Titan I'm glad that you seem confident that the cause of the problem is password related. To begin with I have no recollection of making any changes to any password recently. In addition I did not know that there was such a thing as a hidden password, and that it could be changed. It will be hard too pursue this without knowing what Microsoft calls it. No one else has access to either PC. The last change to the PC was about 9 months ago when I added Quicken to both PC's.

I now suspect that the change of the hidden password may have occurred because of going back to the oldest restore point. Lacking any other apparent explanation I have begun to suspect a virus. Thus I ran a scan from Defender. It reported finding no problems. Additionally my ISP, my mail service and Chrome browser had not reported they detected anything.

To add to the mystery I received a e-mail last week that seems to support my theory. It claimed to be from a company I had never heard of before. They were trying to sell antivirus software or a service. This letter began by claiming that they had detected that some one had in their possession my Windows user password. They had proof of this in the letter which contained my Windows Password. I have never shared it with anyone. The password they wrote was an exact match to my actual password. This has to be more than a lucky guess.

 

[webworkings]

Yeah, sadly that sounds like there is something that shouldn't be. There are quite a few ways one can get something. Additionally, It may not be a virus. It could be malware, which is not the same and can require a different program to search with. Me I like Spybot, but there are many out there.

 

[Clifford L Sanford]

Update: Titan - The system reported finding no malware. That seems to eliminate that as a cause of the problem.
I tested various scenarios listed below that I thought might point toward the cause of the problem.

!. Setting up a task to run at a specified time and day, the scheduler was able to perform the wmic.exe SRP task.

1. Setting up a task to run at start up an independent third party programs.exe. file, I found it failed.
2. Setting up a task to run that third party program at a specified time and day, the scheduler worked as instructed.

This seemed to show that the task scheduler is incapable of running the wmic.exe file only at start up. Normally this would suggest to me that a typographical error was made entering the program \ script or add arguments text may be wrong. However, In all cases program \ script and add arguments text was copied and pasted as plain text unformulated from the web pages i had found that explains how to setup the SRP at startup. Is the text shown below incorrect?

wmic.exe

/Namespace:\\root\default Path SystemRestore Call CreateRestorePoint "Startup Restore Point", 100, 7

 

[webworkings]

It is possible it is a Windows flaw. Not uncommon to find those. Especially in something that wouldn't be commonly used.

You may want to try and contact Microsoft about the issue to see if they have a work around, or search their site support, to see if there are any references to a similar issue.