Hello!

Thank you, for getting back.

Unfortunately, yes, I have tried various restore points.  I have tried 'undo restore' and restore points created by me and by Norton too.

Research pointed to a 'corrupt registry'; I have run check disc twice and a scan disk from the command prompt - everything seems fine.  Then I stumbled across a post relating the issue to Norton and it began to ring bells.

I am kicking myself because as I wrote above, I have been here before; I just wish that I had left a ' more detailed' note of what exactly happened - here is a lesson!

If I 100% knew that switching off Tamper Protection did not enable me to restore last time, I would be satisfied in the knowledge that I know what the issue is and that I can restore my PC by totally removing Norton as I did before if I 'really have too'.

My PC is working fine; however, I downloaded some erroneous Server 2008 Sql add-ons and I would like them removed; also, I need peace of mind that if I do need to restore because the critical error message above is an issue, my PC is capable of doing so.

Only last week I had to strip Norton off, re-install and run live update about 12 times, re-starting every time after updating Mozilla Firefox just to get the Norton toolbar in Firefox working again.  I can't go though that so close to renewal.

I have been a Norton customer for 8 years and my Norton 360 is due for renewal in 10 days. I am already really disappointed that 'one click support' has been removed from the Norton 360 package and that Norton annually charges more money to renew online than I can go to a shop and buy the disk for; this is just another reason to start thinking about looking elsewhere for protection in 10 days.

It is surely not practical to have to un/ reinstall Norton every time you wish to restore your PC; especially, when Windows 7 restores so effectively nowadays.

It looks like I am going to have to wait until renewal, then uninstall Norton totally and see if I can restore Windows - I bet (hope) that I can!  I will get back then, all been well and let you know how I got on.

Perhaps this love/ hate relationship with Norton may have to end!