Welcome to Just Ask Matt! Today, John writes:

I come to you as a last resort - at your kind invitation!

I have a very curious XP (Home) problem which no one seems to be able to fix. The link to XP Help and Support is broken, and no solution so far given to me seems to work.

Do you have any quick fix that I could apply, I wonder? Apart from being a major irritation, I can’t set up restore points anymore, which (for this beginner) is very serious indeed as my bacon has been saved several times by using this function!

Sounds like something got hosed someplace along the line. With this in mind, let’s get ready to take care of this problem. First of all, back up your important data before messing with things too much here. That means making CD/external hard drive backups of important pictures, documents, e-mail, etc.

First, let’s try to fix your system restore. Follow the instructions on this page to the letter. This will help you to get your system restore fixed. If that does not seem to fly, then you may have to run a repair installation to fix this problem.

Once again, please follow all instructions very carefully as each step is very important and must be followed to the letter. Good luck!

Do you have an IT-related question? Perhaps you are just burnt out on writing on the walls with crayons? Whatever the comments may be, drop me a line, and you too can “Just Ask Matt!”