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It's a royal pain to create a System Restore point in Windows (which you should do before you make changes to your PC's configuration): Choose Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, select Create a restore point, and follow the steps in the wizard to set a restore point. Fortunately, you can accomplish the same thing by double-clicking a simple Visual Basic script file that you create yourself.

To begin, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Notepad to open Windows' text editor, and type the following lines:

rp = "Scripted Restore Point by " & WScript.ScriptName

GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore").CreateRestorePoint rp, 0, 100

Save the file to a convenient location. Name it anything, but be sure to give it the .vbs extension so that Notepad doesn't add its default .txt extension.

In Vista, right-click the desktop (or the Start menu folder from which you'll launch the script), and then choose New, Shortcut. Type wscript.exe, followed by a space and the path to the new script. Click Next, type a name such as Create Restore Point, and click Finish.

Launch your new script in XP by double-clicking it. In Vista, you have to right-click your new shortcut and select Run As Administrator; click Continue if prompted to do so by User Account Control.