When conducting maintenance on your computer, removing programs, or doing something more advanced like editing your computer’s registry, you should back up your computer. An alternative to backing up your computer is creating a system restore point. A system restore point is a feature in Windows XP that can allow you to revert your system back to an earlier state. So if you make a change to your computer that is not desired, you can go back to the setting you had before you starting making changes.

To create a system restore point:

1. Click Start

2. Highlight the Programs tab with your cursor

3. Highlight the Accessories tab with your cursor

4. Highlight the System Tools tab with your cursor

5. Click on System Restore – This click will open the System Restore Welcome screen

6. On the Welcome screen, click Create a Restore Point

7. On the Create a Restore Point page, enter a name for your restore point

8. Click Create

Once your System Restore is created, you can make changes to your system. If anything does not go as planned, you can take away all the changes by selecting the system restore point you just created.

To select the system restore point, just follow the same path you took to create it but on the Welcome screen, click Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time. On the next screen, you will be able to select the restore point you created.

By creating a system restore point, you can safeguard any problems that may occur when making changes to your computer.

Another malicious program can affect your computer is known as a “worm”. A computer worm is developed and programmed to copy and distribute itself to other computers over the Internet, usually without the user knowing. Worms are different from viruses in that they often do not destroy programs or data, but that does not mean they do not cause damage. The biggest problem with computer worms is how quickly they spread. Worms can reproduce very quickly and all of that traffic on the network slows down normal usage. It can stop internet browsing or opening documents and grind all activity to an annoying halt.

Worms typically exploit bugs or security holes in Internet browsers or email clients. Some programmers who have a dislike for Microsoft will create worms that utilize security holes in its software to spread itself. Computer worms can also be spread by tricking the user into opening a malicious website or email attachment. You can protect yourself (and others) from computer worms by installing anti-virus software and making sure your system is up-to-date.

Read more about choosing the best anti-virus software.

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If you are running Microsoft Windows Vista and you went to your computer and you got the dreaded blue screen error with the message of Driver_Power_State_Failure, you should probably take a deep breath first. The second thing to do is to read on and learn about how to solve this Vista issue.

Vista has a known issue with components such as digital video cameras that plug into your computer using a FireWire connector cable.  These cables plug into the IEEE 1394 interface (as opposed to a USB Port) located on the front or back of your CPU. FireWire is the Apple branded name for this connection. They are also known as i.LINK, which is branded by Sony and Lynx, which is owned by Texas Instruments. They are used for devices that need high speed data transfer in real time.

These cables plug into the IEEE 1394 interface (as opposed to a USB Port) located on the front or back of your CPU. FireWire is the Apple branded name for this connection. They are also known as i.LINK, which is branded by Sony and Lynx, which is owned by Texas Instruments. They are used for devices that need high speed data transfer in real time.

If you connect your device to your computer using this type of cable and allow your computer to go into standby mode, you may encounter the ugly error message mentioned above when you “revive” your system. To remedy this situation, you need to shut down your computer by powering off and unplug your device.

There is a download from Microsoft that can fix this problem. Information about the update is located on their support site. Download the update and run it on your computer. The issue lies in your computer’s Sbp2Port.sys driver. It doesn’t really like sleeping computers unless it gets updated. Once you install the update, this Vista issue will be solved and you shouldn’t see this error again.