Okay so i was in the middle of working on my game. I'm new to vista so I was having some trouble with a few things. It would not allow me to edit and save my chipsets so i went into the control panel and turned off the User Account Control (UAC). It requied me to restart my computer so i did. Problem is when i went back to work on my game I found that i lost all progres that i did before i turned on my computer. Is there a way to get my work back? that was 6 hours of work i might have just lost. makes me want to punch myself.

well i'm looking for it as i type... i'm still getting used to this.

where did system restore go???

Edit: okay so i found it but the latest restore point is from the day before... aw man! i'm screwed. starting to look like i just need to buck up and do all that work again. SHEET!!!

Edit: OH NO! this is even worse than i thought. This is work that i did sometime yesterday morning. Many more than just 6 hours of work down the drain. All because i had to get rid of that lame ass UAC! i feel like laying down for a while.

Edit: After reactivating vista's UAC i was able to play and edit my game again. the problem with this is that i can't copy these changes that i made. I only just started working on my game in vista yesterday and any progress i have made cannot be copied or moved. whenever i attempt to copy these files to another folder or to a jump drive it only copies the work that was done on another computer before i transfered it to the new one. This is very strange because those files have been changed... when i play it from the edited folder all  the changes are there but when i copy this folder and play it or edit it from there all fo the files seem to be reverted back to the way they were before entering the world fo Vista. I have looked all over the place for a folder that vista is sending the changed files but i can't find anything. Not only that but i can't see how RPG Maker 2003 is finding these mystery files. well, back to the treasure hunt for me. I hate looking for my own lost treasures!

Edit: Well after a lot of trolling the web i learned some things. I learned that i have no idea what i'm doing. I also learned that Vista does not trust me to work on my own files so it thoughtfuly stores anything i do into a virtual folder. The old and unedited files have been there all along and Vista just looks for the changes ive made and hides them away. When i go to copy the files it shows me that i'm copying the edited ones but its actualy only copying the old ones. I looked and looked for ways to retrieve my virtual files (as if they werent virtual enough already) and it seems so far that there is no way to get my files back (or it could just be that i'm autistic). AWSOME! I realy need help. This OS looks like something i should understand but so far i just don't get it.

well i was right there with you Moogle because i couldn't see why my files would revert back to the way they were before they were saved over. Now i've learned that they never were saved over because Vista won't save over files in the programs folder. Instead it creates a virtual folder for each user profile. That way each user will have diferent saved files for the same program. The problem for me was that i could not copy my changed progress and i could not find a way to retrieve the files from the virtual folder. It looks like there is software out there that would allow me to mess with my virtual files but i didn't want to download extra crap on my computer. I hate cluter.

Edit: The good news is that i found a workaround to retrieve my updated files from the virtual folder. Vista didn't want to make it easy for me but i was thinking that if RPG maker 2003 could read these files, HEY, I could probably create a game using the "Create a Gamedisk" function. So i created a game and then installed it to a new folder outside of the programs folder and, KAZAM, I now have my updated game available for me to backup and do whatever i want with it. In your face Vista! This is like taming a wild mustang. I am ready for the next vista chalenge.
 

JohnnyCasil- Yeah but my problem was getting my changed files out so i could store them in a jump-drive or CD but, like i said, i found a way to get them using the "create game disk" button. Oh and do you know of a way that i can take my virtual files (which by the way are in my "Users" hidden folder) and change them into NON-virtual files? I looked for a way to do this for far too many hours and couldn't find any way of doing it. You would be my hero if you could tell me.

Bondo- I don't want this to become a "vista is good/bad" topic but, actually it is woking out very well for me and i like it. It seems to be very protective of files inside the program files folder but i can keep the UAC on and just istall my game files in another folder. I feel like i'm in a bank vault with vista. Oh and i got my stuff back so its all good brotha.

Maybe i should post a topic in the rm2k/3 forum about "how to get your files out of vista's virtual folder with rgp maker 2000/3 if you are dumb like me.". I'll do it if i ever decide to stop being lazy.

Oh dear! I was afraid of this. Somebody lock this topic QUICK AAAAAAH!

JohnnyCasil- HAHAHAH! I already did that my friend. It all worked out in the end. I have my project in a nice and safe place now. (now this next part is probably going to drive you carazy and make you pull your hair out but here i go) Not sure if your method would have helped me get my hidden virtual files though... And it doesn't look like your using vista... sooo... i cant be sure that you understand what i'm talking about. OKAY OKAY DON'T HURT ME! I'M NOT WORTHY!

by the way, thank you. I realy do appreciate the help guys.