72. How Do I Change The Time Interval Between System Restore Points

System Restore creates a restore point roughly every 24 hours. This, of course, is assuming your pc is left on all day and every day. If you regularly turn your pc off then a system restore point is created 24 hours, or thereabouts, after the last restore point.

If 24 hours is a little too long for you, you can alter the length of time taken for System restore to create a restore point. Depending upon what you actually want the time frame can be 6 hours, 12 hours, or whatever you like.

Please Note: To rectify the problem you will need to edit the registry, therefore, before you proceed, you should ensure that you have backed up the registry. (see 62. How do I backup the Registry in Windows XP ).

Click the Start button.
On the Start Menu click Run.
In the Run dialog box type: regedit and then click the OK button.
The Registry Editor window will now open.
Navigate to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\microsoft\windowsNT\currentversion\systemrestore
In the Right hand pane of the registry Editor you should see a DWORD called RPGlobalinterval. If this DWORD doesn't exist then create one by Right Clicking on the System Restore option and selecting New then DWORD from the drop down menu.
The RPGlobalinterval default setting should be 86,400 seconds (24 Hours). To reduce this restore figure to say, every 12 hours, Right Click on the RPGlobalinterval Option and, from the drop down menu, select Modify. In the Modify dialog box first change the Base to Decimal and then type 43200 or whatever period of time you want the restore point to be created in the Value Data box. Next click OK.
Finally Exit the Registry Editor.