The company I work for writes software and the most important file extension generated by our software is '.LSS' Unfortunately, until this week we never realised that this was one of the monitored file name extensions included in Windows System Restore, as it is assumed to relate to a Lotus product (LotusScript Program file). I see that in Windows XP it was possible, by editing file %windir%\system32\restore\Filelist.xml to amend this list, but that since Vista this has not been possible. Unfortunately, some of our customers have 'lost' data as a result of a System Restore, so I am hoping that some expert here might be able to advise of a method either of excluding named folders or editing the list of monitored file name extensions. Thank you in advance.

Please refer to: How does Windows choose which files to back up? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-does-Windows-choose-which-files-to-back-up How To Use Backup and Restore in Windows 7 http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thank you for contributing, but I fear that you have misunderstood my problem. I am willing to accept that I haven't made myself clear. I am not talking about Windows Backup and Restore, I am referring to System Restore - the ability to set a restore point on your computer and then go back to this should you subsequently have a problem on your computer. The problem we have is that our program's data files have the extension '.LSS' and these are included in Windows' System Restore, because it thinks that they are 'LotusScript Program Files'. My customers are losing all of their work if they have to return to a restore point. And in every single case they are having to do this because of problems with other software and not ours. I hope that someone can help me find a hidden setting to exclude this file extension from System Restore.

System Restore only modify system related files. Users’ data should not be changed. The reason of missing data may be caused by the Volume Shadow Copy writer you developed for your program. Please let us know more information. We cannot exclude any files from System Restore in Windows systems. The content that will be restored depends on the writers of VSS, we cannot manually change it. Volume Shadow Copy Service http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee923636(WS.10).aspx How Volume Shadow Copy Service Works http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785914(WS.10).aspxPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thank you for the further information. I still think that you are missing the point, but thank you for your further comments. If you look at the following link you will see the full list of file extensions which are 'rolled-back' when you perform a system restore... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa378870%28v=vs.85%29.aspx The file extension that concerns us is '.LSS' We have about 3,000 customers, most of whom are running our software on laptops. Neither we, nor our customers know anything about Volume Shadow Copying and neither should we. And I reiterate, never have any of our customers had to perform a System Restore because of anything we or our software has done, but the files created by our software are deleted in the process. All we need to be able to do is exclude our file extensions from Windows System Restore. Who are Microsoft to decide that our file extension is a program file? They provided some method to edit the list of monitored file extensions in Windows XP, but for some reason have removed it in Vista and 7. The backing-up of data is a separate issue entirely and at the moment this is what we are having to advise our customers. What annoys me is the statement in Windows System Restore which clearly says... "System Restore does not affect any of your documents, pictures, or other personal data" In the case of files with the extension '.LSS' this is incorrect.

Hi, Does anyone at Microsoft with any decision making capability wish to make any changes to Windows to allow its users to edit the list of monitored file extensions in 'System Restore'? Or, at the very least change the statement in 'System Restore' and remove the statement "System Restore does not affect any of your documents, pictures, or other personal data" I would appreciate a reply to this quite simple question. I also need to inform you that I will be sending out an electronic bulletin to my 3,000 customers in the next 2 days explaining to them that the Microsoft 'System Restore' should not be used without first backing-up their '.LSS' files. I will be explaining to them that this is because Microsoft have decided that these files are 'System files' and as a result their statement that "System Restore does not affect any of your documents, pictures, or other personal data" is incorrect. I will also be providing a link to the list of monitored file extensions so that they can check if there are any other files which will be affected. I am posting this message to give Microsoft an opportunity to respond before I tell all of my customers that Microsoft are not interested in helping us solve this problem which has been introduced with Vista and 7. Thank you.