What user files does System Restore affect?

Solution 1:

Specific file types monitored by System Restore is given at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378870.aspx. A "system" file is any file in the Windows directory or any file that has the "System" file attribute.

Solution 2:

Under my Downloads folder, there is a luxmark-win64-v2.0 subfolder, containing files I extracted from luxmark-win64-v2.0.zip. The majority (but not all) of the data in the subfolder was removed by System Restore, but the zip file was not affected. I realize I can compare them and see what was removed.

I extracted a new copy of the files from the zip file and used WinMerge to compare the two folders. I found that all .cfg, .dll, .exe, and .ply files are missing in the old luxmark folder, but all .exr, .jpg, .png, .scn, and .txt files are intact.

This suggests that Windows identify personal files (files that are unaffected by System Restore) by file extension only. If you have important files with an extension not commonly associated with personal files, System Restore may remove them.

If possible, I'd recommend backing up all personal files before running System Restore.