I hate malware!

[G1500]

System restore is a joke. It is one of the first things I turn off when I am setting up a system.

[Rivers]

Welcome to adulthood. Seriously. Self control around here is rare.

Thank you. Unfortunately I've already used up my annual allotment of maturity. Future posts will likely be consumed with the juvenile snipes and bickering that runs rampant on web forums.

[G1500]

Thank you. Unfortunately I've already used up my annual allotment of maturity. Future posts will likely be consumed with the juvenile snipes and bickering that runs rampant on web forums.

Common, the internet isn't a place to act grown up.

[oldsmoboat]

Run system restore & restore to an available date before you got the malware. Check your system. Run the ESET online scan (free) & the Microsoft Safety scanner (online & also free.) After your malware is removed. Turn off system restore to clean up your restore points, including the ones with the malware. restart & turn system restore back on.

This

System restore is a joke. It is one of the first things I turn off when I am setting up a system.

It works great. I am not sure what isues you have with it but it saved many a re-install.

[MrBlazito]

Many viruses now a days target system restore files.

Download Hitman Pro. It's free for 30 days and will remove viruses/spyware/rootkits within the 30 days. This software saved me from formatting. I had a rootkit no major brand antivirus could even detect. Tried kaspersky, norton, vipre, malewarebytes, combofix etc etc...nada!!! Downloaded hitman pro, and sure enough it was able to detect the rootkit. The rootkit infected a legit windows file which is why other antivirus were unable to detect it. Hitman pro removed it no problem.

[Nose Nuggets]

System restore is a joke. It is one of the first things I turn off when I am setting up a system.

since xp sp2/3, its been fine. at the launch of XP it was terrible. its a great tool now, though.

[kazman]

Try Trend Micro. They have some cloud based protection. Also, system restore recently saved my butt when Microsoft issued faulty powerpoint updates for XP. I had auto updates turned on and couldn't use my ppt files until I restored to before the update, turn off auto updates, and ignored the ppt updates.

[Cokebottle]

System restore is a joke. It is one of the first things I turn off when I am setting up a system.

Ditto.

In many cases, attacks will target the system restore area, rather than active program areas.
It will sit dormant until you restore the system, then boom... it activates.

Had that happen 4 times on a company laptop. IT went through the system and never could find where it was coming from. That's the point of that angle of attack.
Fortunately, it never activated as I never restored... the corporate AV software caught it while still in the system restore area.

[AetiusAbove]

After trying different things I finally lost it and installed Linux.

Once Windows 8 comes out ( this summer I'm told) I'll install that.
In the mean time, I will miss playing Age of Empires.
All my other machines are Apple.

[Nose Nuggets]

After trying different things I finally lost it and installed Linux.

Once Windows 8 comes out ( this summer I'm told) I'll install that.
In the mean time, I will miss playing Age of Empires.
All my other machines are Apple.

i would never recommend a customer upgrade to a newly released OS.

Windows 7 is a good OS, there is little reason not to use it.

[TMC]

My daughters desktop got a really bad virus last year masquerading as Windows anti-virus. It wouldn't even allow the web browser to go to any website were malwarebytes was downloadable, it would redirect to some fake sites. I had to download rkill and malwarebytes them on my computer, rename them so the virus didn't recognize them and load them from a flash drive. I had to run them several times before it cleaned up the system.

[Nose Nuggets]

My daughters desktop got a really bad virus last year masquerading as Windows anti-virus. It wouldn't even allow the web browser to go to any website were malwarebytes was downloadable, it would redirect to some fake sites. I had to download rkill and malwarebytes them on my computer, rename them so the virus didn't recognize them and load them from a flash drive. I had to run them several times before it cleaned up the system.

this would be a prime time to take part in the miracle that is System Restore.

[Bryansix]

Ah, I was too late.

Your answer was (and still is) Autoruns http://live.sysinternals.com/autoruns.exe

Run it as admin from safe mode and 99% of the time you can disable the malware yourself.