These are the precautions you should take before applying advanced tricks in Windows 10

With the arrival of Windows 10 there has been a lot of interest on the part of users in learning tricks that allow them to get more out of the system. Right here at Xataka Windows we have taught several of them, such as being able to release 20 GB of installation files, changing the login image, or changing the color of the windows.

And while many of these tricks are relatively simple, there are others that are more complex, as they require modifying registry entries of system, or install third-party software whose correct operation is not guaranteed. And to make matters worse, the constant (and mandatory) updates to Windows 10 cause the operating system itself to constantly change, which means that some tricks that work fine with the current version of Windows begin to crash or generate conflicts after an update is installed.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst

The good thing is that most of these risks can be eliminated by taking a few precautions, which will allow us to quickly recover normal operation of the system, without losing our files.

1) Activate System Restore (and create a restore point)

If we are going to modify the Windows registry, or install unofficial tools to customize the system (such as apps that change the logon image) it is totally recommended and I would say that it is even essential to have System Restore enabled.

How to manually create a restore point

It is also recommended to go one step further, and manually create a restore point before applying an advanced Windows 10 trick.The reason for doing this is that while Windows creates restore points automatically on a regular basis, you may be unlucky enough that the very points created are not appropriate for undoing problematic changes.

To be able to create a restore point we have to:

• Write ">

• "A System Properties window will be displayed, in it we click on the Create button, at the bottom of it."

• Another window will appear where we have to name the restore point that we are about to create. It is best to give it a descriptive name of the change we will make later (for example, ">

• "Finally we press the Create button in this new window."

And voila, Windows will create a restore point that will allow you to return to the current state of the computer if something goes wrong.

2) Create a Windows 10 Recovery Drive

Microsoft designed Windows 10 with the idea that external recovery drives were not required, since the system itself integrates restore options that allow to restore the operating system to its original state without losing our files. To invoke this option, simply go to Settings > Recovery > Reset this PC (there's even a recovery menu that automatically drops down if the operating system fails to start).

However, as it is always best to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, it is advisable to create an external recovery drive, the which will be useful to us in case the other restore options do not work.

To do this we have to:

• Go to Start menu or search box/Cortana, type ">

• "We will be shown a security box asking if we want to continue, press OK."

• Then on the first screen of the wizard a check box will appear for Make a backup copy of system files . We must check it to ensure that the recovery drive is usable even when the Windows files on the hard drive are totally damaged.

From then on we simply follow the wizard's instructions. Several DVD discs will be required, or a USB drive of at least 16 GB.

3) Save copies of the Windows registry before making changes

If we are going to modify the Windows registry, it may be a good idea to save a backup copy of it before making any changes. These copies are stored in .reg files that are only a few MB, and that allow you to recover the registry to the state prior to its modification, without having to reinstall Windows or carry out other more cumbersome processes.

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To create a copy of the registry simply open the Windows registry (Start menu > type regedit> press Enter), open the File menu, press Export>" "

To restore a previously created copy, follow the same steps as above, except that you use the Import option within the File menu , and there open the .reg file that we want to restore."

4) Create backup copies of our files

Finally, it is worth remembering that we must periodically make backup copies of our important files, regardless of whether we are going to apply some advanced trick or not. Windows 10 offers multiple tools for this, so here we will mention the most useful ones.

OneDrive: Cloud Backup

OneDrive is already integrated into Windows 10 and offers us 15 GB of free storage, which we can expand to 30 GB if we activate the camera backup on a smartphone (iOS, Android or Windows Phone). Also, if we are Office 365 subscribers, the space multiplies until it reaches 1 TB, which should be enough to store all our files.

To back up files to OneDrive we have to log in to Windows with our Microsoft account, or log in to the Windows application OneDrive (Windows 10 allows you to use OneDrive with a different account than the one used in Windows).

Then we simply have to move the files we want to back up to the OneDrive folder that will appear in the navigation bar on the left of the file explorer.

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File History: Time Machine>"

Despite the convenience provided by OneDrive cloud storage, it is not recommended to rely only on it, since it is permanently synchronized with the PC, if our files are corrupted on the disk local that will be replicated to the cloud copies as well.

Therefore, we should also make a physical backup copy, ideally to an external hard drive or a network location. For this purpose, it is best to use the File History tool that is integrated into Windows 10.

This is a system of incremental backup copies, which cumulatively saves different versions of our files for each date we have made a backup.This way, if we do something like delete the contents of an important Word document and save the changes, we can recover an old version of that file and thus restore its full content.

"File History also allows us to recover all our documents, music, pictures and the like in case we had to reinstall Windows clean."

To activate File History we simply have to go to Settings > Update and security > Backup copy. As we mentioned before, an external drive is required for this feature to work properly.

System image, for those who don't want to take risks

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Finally there is what could be considered the mother of all backup copies>Windows system images This tool clones the entire content of our hard drive, including programs, windows registry, settings, operating system, documents, music, everything."

In theory, using this type of backup should be unnecessary given the existence of other recovery tools in Windows 10, but the option is still provided for those who want to use it. The scenario where it would be more advisable to use this type of backup is when we are about to make a very risky change, which involves modifying many Windows files.

To create a system image we must go to Settings > Update and security > Backup copies > Go to copies and restore (Windows 7) .

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Then a Control Panel window will appear, in which we must click on the link Create a system image>"

This will open the wizard for creating an image. Obviously, this will require a high-capacity external hard drive, or many DVDs, since everything on the hard drive where Windows is installed will be copied.