A System Restore Question

[4hugger]

Hi,
 I was able to fix my computer with the help of all the knowledge here a couple of weeks ago.....a friend of mine has a virus on her computer that her virus scan is not removing.....her roommate is telling her to use her System Restore and it will go away....I told her that it will not get rid of a virus....I told her to disable it and run her virus scan in safe mode. Roommate is telling her that I dont know what I'm talking about.
   Will using System Restore get rid of a virus?

[merlin_2]

No.........system restore will backup the virus.........i have never use it and its been  disabled for the last five years...it harbours viruses/etc......

[4hugger]

Thank you.....thats exactly what I learned here when I was having all of my own problems. Seems like a lot of folks out there think System Restore is a cure all and dont understand when it doesnt fix the problem.

[Flame]

System Restore was made for hardware and software releated issues, not viruses... Also, it depends on the virus... it MIGHT be able to be fixed by a system restore, but only if it was poorly made... A poorly made virus will go away with system restore, but many will NOT.

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[2k dummy]

Disable system restore. Reboot. Run AV. If clean, re-enable system restore. If a virus is in a restore file, AV cannot fix it. Disabling system restore causes windows to delete all the restore files, thus deleting the virus. When re-enabled, new restore points will be built.

[Flame]

I told her to disable it and run her virus scan in safe mode. Roommate is telling her that I dont know what I'm talking about.

No, you're doing the right thing. It is the roommate that does not know what SHE is talking about. In fact, it is said that Safe Mode should be used when you run a system restore, scan for viruses, etc.

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[merlin_2]

The never ending cycle of woe...imhao.....

[Flame]

So it appears... You have to be careful when talking information from a friend... If they don't know their way around computers so well, they could end-up messing something up...

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[dl65]

4hugger.....NEVER attempt to remove a virus ...( if thats what it is )with the system rstore feature  ........
Tell you friend to do a bit of research or ...even better ....engage brain before opening mouth ........
If a pc is in fact infected with some sort of pest .....be it a virus , trojan or even some malicious spyware ...... The first thing the user should do ...is to shut down the system restore system ...so the pest doesnt infect everything ....... then go into SAFE mode and then begin running the appropriate scanners until the uninvited visitor is isolated and removed .......  Your friend should also remember that anti virus programs may not remove trojans .... They may identify them and where they are residing , but are are unable to remove them .

If you know which pest your friends pc has ...post the name here and we can probably suggest the best app to use to get rid of it .

dl65  

[Raptor]

engage brain before opening mouth ........