Q
I followed the Workshop in an
earlier issue and installed the
Stickies program. I think it’s really
good and I now rely on it daily. Recently,
though, all my sticky notes disappeared. I
don’t know what happened but some of
them contained important information,
including some software serial numbers, so
I’m desperate to get them back.
Th e program itself still loads and appears
in the Notifi cation Area but my old sticky
notes don’t show. I haven’t done anything
with the program since this happened. I
use Windows Backup to take regular
backups of my PC, so I’m sure I have the
necessary file somewhere in my archive. I
know how to restore files from Windows
Backup but I don’t really understand
Stickies’ own instructions. Basically, the
program’s Help file waffl es on about how
to back up the program ‘directory’ but I
find the instructions for restoring data
baffl ing. Can you tell me how to do it,
preferably in plain English?
Mamata J K
A
Having taken a look at them, we
agree that Stickies’ backup/restore
instructions are needlessly
complicated.
Fortunately, restoring notes is pretty
simple, and you might not even need to
worry about restoring older files from
your Windows Backup archive. Th is is
because Stickies makes its own backup
file once every hour, day and week, so if
you haven’t used the program since the
problem arose, the day- or week-old
backup file may do the job.
To start, launch Windows Explorer
(hold down the Windows key and tap E),
then navigate to the C:Users
[yourusername]AppData
Roamingstickies folder. Here
you will see a bunch of files.
Th e pertinent ones are stickies.
ini, stickies.bak, stickies.24h
and stickies.1wk. Th e first of
these – stickies.ini – stores all
your sticky notes, at least when
working correctly. The others
are, respectively, the hour-,
day- and week-old backups of
the same file.
So, to restore your notes from
a week ago, all you need to do
is rename the ‘stickies.1wk’ file
to ‘stickies.ini’. First, though,
close Stickies (right-click its Notification
Area icon and choose Exit). Now rename
the current stickies.ini file to be on the safe
side. Press F2 and type a name such as
‘stickies.old’. Now select either stickies.24h
or stickies.1wk (the hour-old version isn’t
likely to be much use), press F2 and rename
it ‘stickies.ini’. Restart Stickies and your
sticky notes should reappear.
If they don’t, you’ll need to turn to your
Windows Backup archive. Restore only the
files named above, choosing to overwrite
the existing current files.