How often should one set a restore POINT on a machine.

Is there any downside to doing it once a week or even
more frequently?

- BalOne a week is fine, the only draw back to them is that they consume SPACE on the hard drive.

If you are low risk for problems once a week is probably fine.

If you are downloading and installing programs regularly and surf the grey area of the internet, you may WANT to have a more frequent restore point set up.

* Also if you are surfing the grey area of the internet, its best to do so while logged in as a limited user account instead of an admin account to protect from unwanted auto installer SCRIPTS etc.You can limit the space used by system restore. Personally, I prefer disc imaging to system restore.I also agree with Allan with an Image created vs a Restore Point as for an Image is isolated from the Hard Drive to where if the hard drive has a problem you still have the ability to restore the system back from image, while restore points if the hard drive is damaged in a location that overlaps the restore point and the working OS, then you are in trouble because both are damaged and you have nothing to really restore.