Resurrecting Sticky Notes in W7

[choro]

Due to Malware etc my W7 machine ground down to its death throes. So I
System Restored it to an earlier date and it is good as gold now and
fast and sprightly like a squirrel. So far, so good.

And then I realized that I had lost my sticky notes. A quick Googling
revealed where the StickyNotes.snt file is stored. Instead of it being
stored as a User File it is apparently actually stored within the W7
System Files. But how to access and restore my old Sticky Notes?

Ah, that simple operation is well nigh impossible, as I have discovered
to my dismay. The only way I can bring it back is to go back and do a
System Restore to a later date. But I System Restored to an earlier date
to get rid of Malware etc. So if I System Restore to the later SR point,
I will get the Malware and all the associated problems.

Any way out of this dilamma? And why all the clever(!) people employed
by M$ chose to embody this User File within Windows system files rather
than as an easily accessible User Document just beats me.

Any suggestions? I have got image backups of the C drive on an external
HD but of course I can't resurrect it as I will get all the problems
associated with the Malware I got rid of in the first place.

This seems like a Catch-22 situation.

Bloody STOOPIDO, if you ask me.

What a bloody M$ mess-up!

 

[Paul]

Due to Malware etc my W7 machine ground down to its death throes. So I
System Restored it to an earlier date and it is good as gold now and
fast and sprightly like a squirrel. So far, so good.

And then I realized that I had lost my sticky notes. A quick Googling
revealed where the StickyNotes.snt file is stored. Instead of it being
stored as a User File it is apparently actually stored within the W7
System Files. But how to access and restore my old Sticky Notes?

Ah, that simple operation is well nigh impossible, as I have discovered
to my dismay. The only way I can bring it back is to go back and do a
System Restore to a later date. But I System Restored to an earlier date
to get rid of Malware etc. So if I System Restore to the later SR point,
I will get the Malware and all the associated problems.

Any way out of this dilamma? And why all the clever(!) people employed
by M$ chose to embody this User File within Windows system files rather
than as an easily accessible User Document just beats me.

Any suggestions? I have got image backups of the C drive on an external
HD but of course I can't resurrect it as I will get all the problems
associated with the Malware I got rid of in the first place.

This seems like a Catch-22 situation.

Bloody STOOPIDO, if you ask me.

What a bloody M$ mess-up!

I can't promise anything, but Gene mentioned "Shadow Explorer" within the last
few days. I would investigate "Shadow Explorer" plus "Previous Versions", and
see whether the System Backup + System Restore points, might have saved something
you can access with the Shadow Explorer. I don't know System Restore well
enough, to know whether your particular file is in there or not.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...hadow-copies-on-any-version-of-windows-vista/

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Previous-versions-of-files-frequently-asked-questions

Now, I've turned off System Restore on my Window 7, so I'll never get
to test this... All my backups are "System Image" type, which I can
already access with .vhd tools.

Your other option, would be to see if StickyNotes.snt subsystem has
any redundancy, like keeping .bak copies somewhere.

Anyway, just a guess, and good luck,

Paul

 

[SC Tom]

Due to Malware etc my W7 machine ground down to its death throes. So I
System Restored it to an earlier date and it is good as gold now and fast
and sprightly like a squirrel. So far, so good.

And then I realized that I had lost my sticky notes. A quick Googling
revealed where the StickyNotes.snt file is stored. Instead of it being
stored as a User File it is apparently actually stored within the W7
System Files. But how to access and restore my old Sticky Notes?

Ah, that simple operation is well nigh impossible, as I have discovered to
my dismay. The only way I can bring it back is to go back and do a System
Restore to a later date. But I System Restored to an earlier date to get
rid of Malware etc. So if I System Restore to the later SR point, I will
get the Malware and all the associated problems.

Any way out of this dilamma? And why all the clever(!) people employed by
M$ chose to embody this User File within Windows system files rather than
as an easily accessible User Document just beats me.

Any suggestions? I have got image backups of the C drive on an external HD
but of course I can't resurrect it as I will get all the problems
associated with the Malware I got rid of in the first place.

This seems like a Catch-22 situation.

Bloody STOOPIDO, if you ask me.

What a bloody M$ mess-up!

You allow malware onto your computer, and then blame Microsoft? It is to
laugh

My .snt file is in my User profile
(C:\Users\YepItsMe\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes), but the
executable is %windir%\system32\StikyNot.exe. If you run SFC, maybe that
would restore it for you, if there is no backup as Paul suggested. I don't
see one on my system, so you may be SOL on that.

Good luck with it. I hope you fix your malware problems, too.

 

[choro]

You allow malware onto your computer, and then blame Microsoft? It is to
laugh

My .snt file is in my User profile
(C:\Users\YepItsMe\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes), but the
executable is %windir%\system32\StikyNot.exe. If you run SFC, maybe that
would restore it for you, if there is no backup as Paul suggested. I
don't see one on my system, so you may be SOL on that.

Good luck with it. I hope you fix your malware problems, too.

You obviously didn't read my posting carefully. I say there specifically
that I have restored my comp to an earlier date and that it is good as
gold now. So my malware problem is fixed but I lost stickynotes.snt in
the process.

No doubt I can try different restore points and see if I can get it
back. It should be somewhere but it's hardly worth the effort. But I was
annoyed by M$ saving the fine not as a user file which I regularly
XXcopy to an external HD, but rather saving it within the bowels of the
Win7 system files. A stoopid idea if I ever came across one.

I've got to the stickynotes.snt file but it's a new one so all my old
sticky notes are buried 6 foot under, deep somewhere within the bowels
of W7's Restore Points. What a stoopid way of doing things!

From now on, if I want sticky notes I'll first key the info in in MS
Word, save it as a Word file and then and only then copy and paste it as
a Sticky note. That way you can choose different fonts, font colors etc
too as an added benefit.

 

[choro]

I can't promise anything, but Gene mentioned "Shadow Explorer" within
the last
few days. I would investigate "Shadow Explorer" plus "Previous
Versions", and
see whether the System Backup + System Restore points, might have saved
something
you can access with the Shadow Explorer. I don't know System Restore well
enough, to know whether your particular file is in there or not.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...hadow-copies-on-any-version-of-windows-vista/


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Previous-versions-of-files-frequently-asked-questions


Now, I've turned off System Restore on my Window 7, so I'll never get
to test this... All my backups are "System Image" type, which I can
already access with .vhd tools.

Your other option, would be to see if StickyNotes.snt subsystem has
any redundancy, like keeping .bak copies somewhere.

Anyway, just a guess, and good luck,

Paul

Thanks Paul. See also my response to SC Tom.

 

[Ed Cryer]

You obviously didn't read my posting carefully. I say there specifically
that I have restored my comp to an earlier date and that it is good as
gold now. So my malware problem is fixed but I lost stickynotes.snt in
the process.

No doubt I can try different restore points and see if I can get it
back. It should be somewhere but it's hardly worth the effort. But I was
annoyed by M$ saving the fine not as a user file which I regularly
XXcopy to an external HD, but rather saving it within the bowels of the
Win7 system files. A stoopid idea if I ever came across one.

I've got to the stickynotes.snt file but it's a new one so all my old
sticky notes are buried 6 foot under, deep somewhere within the bowels
of W7's Restore Points. What a stoopid way of doing things!

From now on, if I want sticky notes I'll first key the info in in MS
Word, save it as a Word file and then and only then copy and paste it as
a Sticky note. That way you can choose different fonts, font colors etc
too as an added benefit.

My researching tells me that Sticky Notes are stored in the User's
Appdata folder. That should count as "data", not system files.

If they truly went with the Restore, then I'm with your anger, and it
was wrong.
But (sorry to repeat, because this seems like a real goof from MS) are
you sure they went with the Restore?
Have a search for .snt or sticky. Maybe they got shuffled to somewhere else.

Ed

 

[Char Jackson]

Due to Malware etc my W7 machine ground down to its death throes. So I
System Restored it to an earlier date and it is good as gold now and
fast and sprightly like a squirrel. So far, so good.

And then I realized that I had lost my sticky notes. A quick Googling
revealed where the StickyNotes.snt file is stored. Instead of it being
stored as a User File it is apparently actually stored within the W7
System Files. But how to access and restore my old Sticky Notes?

Ah, that simple operation is well nigh impossible, as I have discovered
to my dismay. The only way I can bring it back is to go back and do a
System Restore to a later date. But I System Restored to an earlier date
to get rid of Malware etc. So if I System Restore to the later SR point,
I will get the Malware and all the associated problems.

Any way out of this dilamma? And why all the clever(!) people employed
by M$ chose to embody this User File within Windows system files rather
than as an easily accessible User Document just beats me.

Any suggestions? I have got image backups of the C drive on an external
HD but of course I can't resurrect it as I will get all the problems
associated with the Malware I got rid of in the first place.

I would not have used System Restore to get out of a malware
situation. That doesn't seem to be within its intended purpose at all.
I'm disappointed that it even worked, because it will only encourage
others to do the same thing.

I think you have at least two options:
a) Bring your system current again by restoring your latest full
image. If that brings the malware back, so be it. Deal with the
malware properly, not via System Restore!

b) Dig into your latest image backup, find the Sticky Notes file, and
copy it back to your current system state.

If it were me, I'd definitely take the first option.

This seems like a Catch-22 situation.

Bloody STOOPIDO, if you ask me.

What a bloody M$ mess-up!

I'm with SC Tom here. You blame Microsoft for your own mistakes?

 

[Ed Cryer]

I would not have used System Restore to get out of a malware
situation. That doesn't seem to be within its intended purpose at all.
I'm disappointed that it even worked, because it will only encourage
others to do the same thing.

I think you have at least two options:
a) Bring your system current again by restoring your latest full
image. If that brings the malware back, so be it. Deal with the
malware properly, not via System Restore!

b) Dig into your latest image backup, find the Sticky Notes file, and
copy it back to your current system state.

If it were me, I'd definitely take the first option.


I'm with SC Tom here. You blame Microsoft for your own mistakes?

Yes. If malware was clogging things up, then it was probably launched by
something smuggled into the main file system. As to whether or not that
file was removed by the restore, well, maybe yes/ maybe no, depending on
a lot of factors including date of infection and whether into a system
file; but if no, then it's going to happen again once the triggering is
fired. Time will tell.

Ed

 

[Bob Hatch]

I would not have used System Restore to get out of a malware
situation. That doesn't seem to be within its intended purpose at all.
I'm disappointed that it even worked, because it will only encourage
others to do the same thing.

I think you have at least two options:
a) Bring your system current again by restoring your latest full
image. If that brings the malware back, so be it. Deal with the
malware properly, not via System Restore!

b) Dig into your latest image backup, find the Sticky Notes file, and
copy it back to your current system state.

If it were me, I'd definitely take the first option.


I'm with SC Tom here. You blame Microsoft for your own mistakes?

I'm with you Char. The problem with your solutions is that if he had an
image backup, he probably would have used it. I lost deleted a Sticky
Note several weeks ago that I shouldn't have, so I just looked at the
last clone of C: and copied the file over. 30 seconds.

--
I do not carry a gun hoping that
I'll be able to shoot someone, anymore than
I carry a jack hoping I'll have a flat
tire.
Me.

 

[Ken Blake]

I would not have used System Restore to get out of a malware
situation. That doesn't seem to be within its intended purpose at all.
I'm disappointed that it even worked, because it will only encourage
others to do the same thing.

I hope it doesn't encourage anyone to do it, because it very seldom
does work, and often just complicates the problem.

But unfortunately, I often see people trying it, with the hope that it
will fix their malware infection.

 

[...winston]

Or backup with an imaging program or Windows Backup and Restore that
provides the ability to restore a previous file.

--
....winston
msft mvp mail


"choro" wrote in message

I've got to the stickynotes.snt file but it's a new one so all my old
sticky notes are buried 6 foot under, deep somewhere within the bowels
of W7's Restore Points. What a stoopid way of doing things!

From now on, if I want sticky notes I'll first key the info in in MS
Word, save it as a Word file and then and only then copy and paste it as
a Sticky note. That way you can choose different fonts, font colors etc
too as an added benefit.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

My .snt file is in my User profile
(C:\Users\YepItsMe\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes), but the
executable is %windir%\system32\StikyNot.exe.

Let me express total agreement on that and with Ed Cryer as well, to
emphasize it for choro.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul. See also my response to SC Tom.

Another option would have been, to try Photorec and
see if it can be un-deleted. The stickynotes.snt
is in the list of supported file formats.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Formats_Recovered_By_PhotoRec

But the thing is, if you've done one or more System Restores,
those can do up to a gigabyte of writes to the file system,
and the data clusters of a deleted file can get overwritten.

Paul

 

[choro]

Or backup with an imaging program or Windows Backup and Restore that
provides the ability to restore a previous file.

Thanks for your sound advice, winston, but I think you will find my
reply to your suggestion in my reply to Ed Cryer. But I am not going to
Restore from an Image Backup just for the sake of my Sticky Notes.

 

[choro]

Let me express total agreement on that and with Ed Cryer as well, to
emphasize it for choro.

Thanks. Maybe somebody at MS will make a mental note of this.

 

[choro]

I would not have used System Restore to get out of a malware
situation. That doesn't seem to be within its intended purpose at all.
I'm disappointed that it even worked, because it will only encourage
others to do the same thing.

I think you have at least two options:
a) Bring your system current again by restoring your latest full
image. If that brings the malware back, so be it. Deal with the
malware properly, not via System Restore!

b) Dig into your latest image backup, find the Sticky Notes file, and
copy it back to your current system state.

If it were me, I'd definitely take the first option.


I'm with SC Tom here. You blame Microsoft for your own mistakes?

You will find my reaction in my replies to previous postings.

BTW, are you in MS's pay? ;-)

 

[Paul]

Thanks for your sound advice, winston, but I think you will find my
reply to your suggestion in my reply to Ed Cryer. But I am not going to
Restore from an Image Backup just for the sake of my Sticky Notes.

An image backup ("System Image") is stored in one partition per .vhd
file. Look up how to mount a .vhd file, and it will appear like
a disk drive on the machine, browse it, or search it, and
look for your file.

You do *not* have to restore one of those, to gain access to it.

In fact, I mount one of those from my Windows 7 laptop, in
Virtual PC 2007 running on my WinXP machine. It gives me access
to a perfect replica of Windows 7 C:. I transferred a 26GB .vhd
from the laptop backup disk, over to my desktop, just so I
could do file lists of that C: when desired.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

You will find my reaction in my replies to previous postings.

Yep, saw it. Looks like you'd rather not accept responsibility and
would rather blame Microsoft. It's a strange world we live in.

BTW, are you in MS's pay? ;-)

Strange question.

 

[choro]

An image backup ("System Image") is stored in one partition per .vhd
file. Look up how to mount a .vhd file, and it will appear like
a disk drive on the machine, browse it, or search it, and
look for your file.

You do *not* have to restore one of those, to gain access to it.

In fact, I mount one of those from my Windows 7 laptop, in
Virtual PC 2007 running on my WinXP machine. It gives me access
to a perfect replica of Windows 7 C:. I transferred a 26GB .vhd
from the laptop backup disk, over to my desktop, just so I
could do file lists of that C: when desired.

Paul

Sorry but it seems I've only got Macrium backups of my C drive. I might
have done an image backup with Paragon but I can't really be sure. Maybe
I have got it on one of my external HDs.

But I'll look into this .VHD thing. I take it stands for Virtual Hard
Disk. It might come in handy for future use.

 

[choro]

Yep, saw it. Looks like you'd rather not accept responsibility and
would rather blame Microsoft. It's a strange world we live in.


Strange question.

I use a very good AV + a very good anti-Malware program to protect my
computer. If MS Win OS's are vulnerable to Viruses and Malware, then it
is MS's duty to make their OS's as robust as possible against viruses
and malware.

And no, why should it be a strange question? If people come up with
unconditional support for MS, then one begins to wonder whether their
views are impartial. A defense advocate is hardly impartial.