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To optimize the MSI installation, I have disabled the system restore point (MSIFASTINSTALL=3) in my installer. Now installation time is reduced as I expected. But I want to know whether it is a good practice or not? Is there any drawback of disabling the system restore? What is the actual use of disabling the system restore point in windows installer? I can see a lot of articles about this. But I can't understand them clearly. It would be better if anyone explains these things in simple words.

Kathir Subramaniam
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    This question is not related to MSI in any way and should be moved to SuperUser. – montonero Feb 13 '19 at 07:53
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    I honestly don't know, but I have seen serious interference between System Restore and MSI installations in the sense that an MSI can no longer be uninstalled properly after system restore - something system restore is supposed to prevent. I guess it can have some value for driver installations, but I think there are other constructs for that now where driver installation is versioned on its own - not sure about that either. You probably need Raymond Chen, Heath Stewart or Rob Mensching to really investigate this. If your install is trivial & simple, just disable System Restore is my 2 cents. – Stein Åsmul Feb 13 '19 at 14:41
  • @montonero, https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=restore+point I think the question is asked in right place only. – Kathir Subramaniam Feb 13 '19 at 14:45
  • @KathirSubramaniam StackOverflow is about developing. Your question is not about developing but about a general system functionality IMO. – montonero Feb 13 '19 at 14:49
  • Be careful with system restore - it is a source of mystery and weirdness. There is [a section here on system restore](https://stackoverflow.com/a/50478416/129130). To be more blunt: I find system restore to be more trouble than it is worth, but that is a bigger issue. I have seen System Restore remove source code files from the desktop that I was working on for example. Disbelief, but I saw it. Un-reproducable at the time, but it definitely happened. And I really wonder what could happen with GIT working folders in this perspective? Cached MSI files also seem to have been removed. – Stein Åsmul Feb 13 '19 at 15:20

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