Last Known Good Config b/w System Restore

[ITlover]

What is the difference between Last Known Good Configuration and System Restore?

As far as I know, in Last Known Good Configuration, a Computer is returned to the state of last successful logon and in System Restore, a Computer is restored to a point when it was working successfully. This is done when their is a problem in the computer.

I donot understand clearly what is the main difference between 2 if both are restoring the computer to previous state?

[Statica]

LKGC is basically a one time only restore option of your registry and driver settings. Keep in mind that it just restores SETTINGS from the registry or registry keys. This is restored from the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet. Booting to safe mode does not reset the LKGC, but if you boot to normal mode then the LKGC is reset.

System restore is more comprehensive as it provides you a snapshot of everything it's allowed to monitor, including the registry and system files. So even if a driver you just installed is corrupt, the LKGC would be able to do nothing about it, whereas system restore/driver rollback will allow you to return to your previous state. Moreover, depending on the space you provided you have multiple options for restoring your computer as your computer could hold multiple snapshots.

[ITlover]

Thanks Sir, but their are certain things that I wanted to clarify further, by settings do you also mean the applications and softwares that are installed by a user in a system like msn, adobe acrobate and others or just the drivers of hardware devices?

If for example If I use LKGC and restore my computer to last successful position, then the next time if I install any new application or software successfully, its information will be stored in the registry right? So LKGC will keep a copy of that registry and software or the application in a database so that next time when ever their is a trouble or problem after the installation of other applications or softwares, this LKGC will return the troubled registry to the copy of the registery that it saved, please correct me if I am wrong?

so it means that the last known good config doesnot have anything to do with system files and hardware drivers?

[macko72]

Troubleshooting
• With the Last Known Good Configuration feature, you can recover from configuration problems such as newly installed drivers that may be incorrect for your computer's hardware. It does not correct problems that are caused by missing or corrupted drivers or files.
• The Last Known Good Configuration feature uses information that is saved from the last time that you shut down your computer to restore registry settings and drivers. Therefore, you can use this feature only if you were able to start your computer successfully before you restore your computer by using the last known good configuration.
• After you start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration feature, changes that were made since the last successful startup are lost.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852/

[ITlover]

Yes I got your explanation, the troubling changes that were made since the last successful logon are lost when we use LKGC, and what I understand further from your post is that System Restore can recover your Computer from a state where you have corrupt or missing drivers troubling your computer.

And the successful changes that we make after using LKGC, like installing new softwares ,applications and drivers of hardwares ,their info is saved in the registry and next time when ever their is a trouble after installing a driver or software, the LKGC restores from the last saved registry.