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    After Windows System Restore, logging in gives errors and MXT files are reverted

    Explanation:To cure a problem in Windows, I used System Protection to revert to a previous Restore Point. Now for some projects I get an 'Invalid ABFile file' error, for others 'not enough elements'. Looking in the meplus0.err file I see *.csl files mentioned. On disk the .csl files are missing in the first case (or size 0 after the error), or have reverted to a previous version. Some MXT type exports are also missing or have reverted to a previous version.
     
    Affects:Windows Vista - 8.1 (and 10 if manually enabled)
     
    Solution:Windows System Restore states it only affects the registry, executables and scripts, and not user documents. Unfortunately, what it considers as executables and scripts is a list of 574 Monitored File Name Extensions. Some of these are used by applications for user files, so there are many reports on the net of people losing such data in various applications. System Restore began causing data loss in this way in Windows Vista. MetaCase and many other software vendors and users have reported this problem to Microsoft, but subsequent Windows versions have not corrected the situation (as of 8.1 Update; Windows 10 improves the situation by not enabling System Restore by default on C:).

    Affected files in MetaEdit+ are .csl, .ctb, and .gst for repositories, .mxt for metamodels in XML, and metaedit.ini. These files will thus be incorrectly reverted by System Restore to their state when the restore point was made. If they did not exist back then they will be deleted; conversely, if the repository existed then but has since been deleted, files of these types will reappear along with their directories (but not the rest of the repository files).

    To get the MetaEdit+ files back to the state before System Restore, you can use Shadow Explorer. When Windows deleted or reverted your files with System Restore, it first created a new 'undo' restore point containing those files. In Shadow Explorer you can select the disk with your MetaEdit+ files, select this 'undo' restore point by its timestamp, select the repository's directory, and choose Export from its pop-up menu.

    Other solutions include mounting the shadow copy manually rather than using Shadow Explorer, backing up MetaEdit+ user files before System Restore, turning off System Restore, or keeping MetaEdit+ user files on a disk where System Restore is not turned on (by default it is turned on only on C:, and not even there for Windows 10). Do not try using FilesNotToSnapshot or other registry keys for System Protection - they do not help, and actually make the data loss worse for files on the Monitored Extensions list: http://superuser.com/questions/713565/exclude-files-or-folders-from-system-restore/773300.