System Restore Question...?

Question

I installed Avira AntiVir yesterday, and I am going to install an Anti-Spyware program, but I was reading that if you want to do a complete and good spyware scan, you need to run it in safe mode and reboot the computer, and restore the system, while in normal mode. What day should I do it so it doesn't delete my Anti Virus or Anti Spyware? I am thinking about doing one on Saturday, and could I be able to take the restore back to Thursday?

Answer 1

Manually set a restore point immediately after installing the two programs. When you restore, select that restore point.

Answer 2

System restore will indeed remove your AV if you roll the system back to before the date it was installed.

However, You shouldn't need to use system restore at all when running a virus scan. In fact, certain viruses can hide themselves in the system restore folder and use it to resurrect themselves after cleaning.

My advice would be to run the scan in safe mode, restart, then run a scan in normal mode, no restore needed. Don't ever turn off system restore unless you're 100% positive that there's a virus in there, as turning it off immediately wipes any saved restore data.

Answer 3

Doing a system restore will not allow you to do a good spyware scan. It will actually undo the scan.  A restore point restores files and folders as well as settings, and any changes to programs since that restore point.  IF you set a restore point, then remove your viruses and spyware, it could undo it, otherwise it will have no major effect on your computer besides waste your time. We dont want that.  Steps to a good scan

1- Boot into safe mode.  Run one scan.  Fix all, reboot.

2- Boot into safe mode, Run the other scan.  Fix all, reboot.

3- Boot into normal mode, Run both scans, one at a time.  Fix all, reboot.

4- Activate the programs real time protection to prevent future infection.

If your computer has MAJOR MAJOR virus and spyware issues, it would make more sense to just reformat the hard drive(erases EVERYTHING) and reinstall windows, and start over(of course before you did this you backed up all important files and scanned them to make sure none were viruses/spyware)