Windows Restore to an earlier date deletes all .exe files in my Download Folder?

[DocAElstein]

Hi,
Amongst other things I downloaded a dozen or so .exe files yesterday, Saturday. Most of them I tried to do something useful with, with some limited success. (For no special reason I put them in my Download Folder)
I had a feeling my success was getting worse as time went on: a few .exes that came close to do what I wanted suddenly also didn’t work anymore.

So, I tried something….
, so I am/ was on a windows 10 machine, but I tried something that had often got me out of a jam many times in Vista and Windows 7. - I tried restoring to a few days ago.
I impressed myself in that I managed to do it, despite it appearing to be a bit hidden in Windows 10.
( This is how I did it:
https://i.postimg.cc/P57y7cnY/01-Control-Panel.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/hjWrDdjG/02-Control-Panel.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/8Cr4gHT3/03-Contro ... things.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/L5vB3QVq/05-Securi ... anance.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/85RbjzJm/06-Restore.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/VvzWMPXQ/07-System ... e-Open.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/y6TPKWzV/08-Choose ... -point.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/jddhSKsy/09-25-October-2023.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/ncRGs5zg/10-Go-do-it.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/t48dkxFz/11-Go-do-it.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/NjK7R42M/12-Doned-it.jpg
( The trick I found was to add a \ thing as I went along in the explorer path bar, and then things got revealed in the drop down list which were nowhere else in windows 10 to find, at least not by me )
)

The Windows Restore to an earlier date seemed to work, so far so good, :)( By that “work” I mean it did not error, even if it did take a good half hour. )

The strange thing is: All my exe files from yesterday vanished. Other things in the Download folder that I put there, even some zip files I downloaded at about the same time were still there.
Just a minor inconvenience. So I re-downloaded a couple of the vanished exe files.
Just for fun I did exactly the same again : a Windows Restore to the same earlier date.
Same thing happened. The two exe files were gone after.

Am I right in assuming that should not have happened? I thought they are personal files and should not be deleted by the restore to an earlier date thing). ( I have not tried putting them somewhere else, but I will. They obviously can’t vanish if I put them on an external thing, but I may try putting them in a few places , and see what happens…. )

( The Windows Restore to an earlier date did not help to get the exe files to start half working as they originally did, by the way)

Alan

[DocAElstein]

In the meantime it’s getting even more weird…..
While re-downloading some of the exes that vanished, (this time into different places other than my download Folder), something slightly different was downloaded.

In fact I am getting pretty confused with whatever it is I am doing.

What I have been doing, or trying to do, is related to this thread post:
https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php ... 10#p311810
I have been collecting some links to supposed downloads of Windows Live Essentials, principally for the reason of me to get at the old classic windows Movie Maker stuff, ( which is part of that package, at least for the later versions of Movie Maker). I want to do that to see if I can get Movie Maker working on Windows 7 and windows 10,( as I already have it installed from new and working on various forms on some XP and Vista machines).
(It was never supplied by default in Windows 7 or windows 10 , but was available as download from Microsoft, until officially removed for download in 2017)
Internet research suggests it should still be possible, and whilst it’s not unanimous, a lot of people claim to have had success. Quite often these people give a download link which they have shown is given from the 2 large archive sites
web archive org
or / and
archive org
I have been having mixed success with these links over the past few days. But I am wondering now why I should ever have had any success at all?
Perhaps I don’t understand how these archive sites work. - In the past I have used one of them a lot, web archive org.
I have found it a gold mine to get at old good web site pages that are no longer available. But I assumed it somehow captures the page. If that is the case, then it would capture the link to a download, but not necessarily the download stuff?
Or maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong?
Assuming it just captures the link, then if Microsoft are no longer offering the download, (which is the case for any of the old classic movie maker/ old windows live essentials stuff), then that link should not work?
Or does the archive bot scraping thing recognise a download link, when it is doing its capturing, and so get the download and then store it on the archives site’s server, and then re direct the link to it’s downloaded stuff in the future, should someone try to use the old link through their site?

_,___________________

As it happens, after going around in crazy circles something unexpected strange and possibly useful happened:
A link that I had tried many times did once a couple of hours ago download unusually quickly a exe. I ran that exe, and as most usual, and as expected, it started installing Windows Live Essentials, which usually gets so far then errors, and it did also so error this time.
But I always look after each attempt at what I get, if anything. On this occasion I got an incomplete Windows Live Folder in my program files: (sometime I get that, sometimes I get nothing). But on this occasion I appeared to get at least a complete Photo Gallery folder, ( That is the folder that typically MovieMaker resides in). I have had that before, but still up until now, I could not get MovieMaker to run. On this one occasion however, double clicking on the MovieMaker.exe appears at first glance to get me a working Movie Maker
https://i.postimg.cc/8CY3cpcs/First-Mov ... ows-10.jpg


Maybe it was just luck or a statistical certainty that persisting led to some mixture of circumstances resulting in it working on this one occasion. I am reluctant to do anymore experiments on this computer for a while in case I lose it. But I wish I could figure out both
_ why it worked on this one occasion, and
_ if I can now somehow use the files on this computer to get it to work on other computers? - I know, I know, my stupidity again, - installing from an exe and copying program files are different things…. or maybe some combination of a failed install and copying these file to replace missing or corrupted ones after a failed instillation might work… ?

_._____

I think for the time being, I had best leave this working Movie Maker alone, and go and read up for an hour or ten on using Movie Maker so that I can check out if this apparent success is indeed a fully working one………

[SpeakEasy]

Is https://archive.org/download/wlsetup-al ... up-all.exe one of the links you have tried?

[snb]

When downloading big files you should prevent your system to enter 'sleep mode'.

[SpeakEasy]

>Am I right in assuming that should not have happened?

No. It should have happened, exactly as you describe. The System Restore system considers a whole bunch of file extensions to represent system files, and .EXE is one of those. So a .exe created after the most recent restore point will get deleted when you revert to that point.

[DocAElstein]

...downloading big files you should prevent your system to enter 'sleep mode'.

Thanks, I will bear that in mind. I don’t think it would have been an issue here so far since the downloads have taken from a few seconds to at most a couple of minutes. (I generally have the various energy saving / sleep things on my computers set to either a few hours or for never/ permanently on)
_.________________________________-

.. It should have happened,..... The System Restore system considers a whole bunch of file extensions to represent system files, and .EXE is one of those. So a .exe created after the most recent restore point will get deleted when you revert to that point.

Thanks. I did not realise that. (In more recent years I went over to downloading and storing everything externally. The exception is when I am wildly experimenting quickly, as i was in the last few days, and then often things are stored quickly anywhere convenient, often on the pc where I am experimenting),
_._____________________________________

Is https://archive.org/download/wlsetup-all_201802/wlsetup-all.exe
one of the links you have tried?

No. I don’t have much experience yet with archive org – I don’t quite understand yet how that place works, so I have not tried many from there yet. (I have tried many links found at web archive org )
The only archive org I tried was the one suggested here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 8d6bee64dc
This one:
https://archive.org/download/windowsliveessentials2011_201908/wlsetup-all.exe
I tried this one at various times. Consistently the downloaded exe when you run it tries to install Windows Live Essentials 2011 . It consistently fails right at the end with this error: https://i.postimg.cc/ZR5kB6S3/archive-o ... at-end.jpg ... - BTW. I am fairly sure I never had at those times problems with my internet connection, so that error seems a bit strange. I only get that particular error so far with that particular exe from that particular link)

.. https://archive.org/download/wlsetup-all_201802/wlsetup-all.exe
.....

What is the story with that one you gave? I will of course try it eventually , later, but since by luck and persistence I finally appear to have a working (Windows Live) Movie Maker after a few days of trying, I was going to lay off further experiments for a while in case I lose it as a by-product of further experimants.

_.____________

I figure that downloads from 2018 , 2019 should be no use?? – (since Microsoft gave up offering the download, in 2017
, (at least according to what I have read) )

I started looking from the other date end, at web archive org, ( I believe the thing was originally available for download from about 2008/2009 - the thing I want was originally named Windows Live Movie Maker 2009, it was quite different from the original Movie Maker, but to help in the confusion, Microsoft dropped the Live in the name, some time later, ( perhaps around 2012) so that you are now never quite sure which of the two main things people are talking about. So far i have mostly been looking at the second. The first Movie Maker was always pre installed and never available as a download. Luckily I have a Vista machine from the about the middle time in the story, when both were pre installed, or maybe the second one came on an update. In any case I have them both , as standard, on one machine. That is very helpful in helping me avoid confusion in what people are talking about
https://i.postimg.cc/MGnh3GNy/Movie-Mak ... -Maker.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/qqTS7xRL/Movie-Mak ... -Maker.jpg
(As far as I have seen so far, the newest of the two is always in your Program files in a folder with the name Windows Live, and the original first thing is in your Program files a folder with the name Movie Maker, https://i.postimg.cc/KzLCFHZj/Movie-Mak ... -Maker.jpg ) ) ,

, the first download I had/ found at web archive org over the last few days of experimenting, was from September 2010. The exe that gave tried to install Windows Live Essential Beta https://i.postimg.cc/4x9shBsf/Windows-Live.jpg. As I recall, it worked almost a few times, just I ended up with a black screen on the play / preview window. Sometimes it never worked.

I have been through the first few dozen at web archive org so far, going upwards in date. I end up on running the downloaded exe with the thing then making an attemot, (most of which fail), to install either Windows Live Essentials 2011 or Windows Live Essentials 2012
( At the start of an install attempt, you can choose whether to install everything or just the Photo/Movie Maker stuff. So far I have not noticed a difference in success rate depending on what I choose. It seems to go either way randomly)
To add to the confusion, the downloaded exe has on running, tried to install one or the other on different occasions. That seems a bit crazy. Or maybe not?. If it works just as the original download from Microsoft did, then I think sometimes the thing tried to figure out what version you needed of something?? But I still don’t understand how a link to an exe from an achive site can work at all if the place that originally responded to the link claims no longer to offer the download. But maybe I don’t understand how the archive places work with regard to old download links


I had a long frustrating bad period when suddenly no install worked, even some that had had partial success previously, and then , the crazy thing, a download middle in that bad period downloaded untypically quickly, so I expected that would be nothing, but it got me the working version I have now. Crazy?
( Or maybe not crazy. Perhaps my slow unreliable internet connection failed at the right point and the incomplete download by luck was good for me. It did claim at the end, as it almost always does, that it failed. But then sometimes, only occaisionally, you find the Photo Gallery Folder appearing looking quite complete including the MovieMaker.exe in it,
https://i.postimg.cc/vmGZnbZv/C-Program ... allery.jpg
, along with a few other folders in the main Windows Live folder in your program files, and if you are lucky running the MovieMaker.exe works, to varying extents....

_._____


( I have not figured out yet how to find things at archive org yet. It took me a while to figure out how to find stuff at web archive org, and it was well worth it. It can be a life saver. )

[HansV]

Moved from Office General to Windows General.

[DocAElstein]

Ahh, thanks, I had intended to put it in Windows General. No idea how I came to put it in Office General