Viruses, Safe Mode and System Restore

[rjfvillarosa]

If for any reason you believe that your computer is infected with a virus or spyware, it is essential to assist your antivirus and spyware scanners in any way that you can. You can do this in a number of ways, System Restore and Safe Mode are two of the most obvious. One method of assisting your antivirus program is the disabling of system restore, the reason behind this is that windows will not allow any third party application access to the system restore folders (and the virus writers know this), thus if you have a virus residing in your restore folder your antivirus program will be denied access to it and subsequently it will be unable to remove the virus to quarantine. Disabling system restore is not for the feint hearted or inexperienced windows user, as soon as you disable system restore you will delete all of your previous restore points meaning you will NOT be able to restore your computer to a point prior to that. Windows by default will not allow the deletion of an application that is running, therefore your antivirus program will attempt to shut down the virus application and delete it or move it to quarantine.
Which brings us to Safe Mode.
Starting your computer in Safe Mode means starting it with the minimum amount of drivers for hardware and only the minimum windows applications running, usually windows system files, just enough to start your machine up. All of your programs will be accessible from the programs menu, remember that your antivirus program will not be running at this point either but you can launch it from the programs menu. If you plan on running a virus or spybot/adaware scan in this manner, remembering that only the basic drivers and applications are running in safe mode, it would be wise to update to the latest versions of your antivirus and spyware scanners before proceding. In safe mode your antivirus will not be running untill you launch it therefore whilst you do your scans it might be worth physically disconnecting your computer from the internet, simply removing the phone connection is good enough for this.
Safe Mode for XP.
In safe mode, you have access to only basic files and drivers (mouse, monitor, keyboard, mass storage, base video, default system services and no network connections). You can choose the Safe Mode with Networking option, which loads all of the above files and drivers and the essential services and drivers to start networking (not recommended when doing virus scans), or you can choose the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option, which is exactly the same as safe mode except that a command prompt is started instead of the graphical user interface. You can also choose Last Known Good Configuration, which starts your computer using the registry information that was saved at the last shutdown. Safe mode helps you diagnose problems. If a symptom does not reappear when you start in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and minimum device drivers as possible causes. If a newly added device or a changed driver is causing problems, you can use safe mode to remove the device or reverse the change. There are circumstances where safe mode will not be able to help you, such as when Windows system files that are required to start the system are corrupted or damaged. In this case, the Recovery Console may help you. NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will function.
Safe Mode for Windows 9X and ME
Remember how you used to press F8 after the Starting Windows prompt in Windows 95? Well, that method still works, but because Windows 98 no longer has a Starting Windows prompt, it may be a bit harder to know when to press it. Windows 98 has made it easier. All you need to do is hold down the CTRL key at the first sign of any text on the screen during boot until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears.
Safe Mode is used when there may be a problem with your monitor or device drivers required to start Windows. It uses default settings and a minimum amount of device drivers to run Windows. Please note that in Safe Mode, you will not have access to CD-ROM drives, printers, or other devices.

How System Restore Works with XP
System Restore automatically tracks changes to your computer and creates restore points before major changes are to occur. To create a restore point, System Restore takes a full snapshot of the registry and some dynamic system files.
For example, restore points are created before new device drivers, automatic updates, unsigned drivers, and some applications are installed. These healthy system checkpoints are created without prompting or intervention from the user the first time the computer is started after Windows XP is installed and, by default, on a daily basis after that. You can also manually create restore points. When you use System Restore, you can revert to a saved state without losing personal data including Word documents, e-mail settings and
messages, and your Internet favorites list. System Restore won't lose any data you have stored in the My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music folders either.
System Restore should only be used after trying less comprehensive methods of troubleshooting. System Restore changes many files and registry entries, and in some cases might replace more files than you want restored.

How System Restore Works with Windows ME
System Restore makes a snapshot of your computer's configurations, files, settings, and data. It then tightly compresses this snapshot and stores it on your hard disk, creating a restore point that you can revert to in times of computer crisis. System Restore creates a restore point every 10 hours that your computer is on, and every 24 hours of real time. If your computer has been off for more than 24 hours, System Restore will create a restore point when you start up. You can also create your own point manually.

To set up a manual restore point:
Click the Start button.
Point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.
Choose Create a restore point, and then click Next.
In the Restore point description box, type a name for your restore point, and then click Next.
Click OK.
Once you have restore points configured, it's easy to revert to them. Don't worry about losing information in recent documents or e-mail
messages, as System Restore doesn't alter your personal files. You also have the option of reversing any changes that System Restore makes to
your computer.

To restore your computer settings from an earlier time:
Click the Start button.
Point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore.
Choose Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next.
Click a day on the calendar, click the restore point description, and then click Next.
Make sure you have closed all your files and open programs, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
Click Next.
Your system will revert to its previous settings

[star]

rjfvillarosa... Thanks for the information, and thanks for taking the time to get back to me

may be you can possibily advise me on this...

I live in Thailand, and due to all the current problems it seem's that the Thia ISP's are overloaded . I cannot log onto my ISP during the day time, only at ...5 AM .... in the morning, and getting up at 5 AM just to check my e.mails is not good !! so ........

Can you please tell me if this is possible to do..this , and if so how to set it up..?.. Leave my computer switched on with my outlook express programme running, then some how set the modem dial up , to dial my ISP at a specific time when the computer connects it would then send / receive all my e.mails putting them on the outlook express programme to be view later, then the dial up connection would stop at a specific time , leaving the computer running..?

I am running Windows 98,


.............. Again THANKS

[rjfvillarosa]

I left a suggestion to this problem in this thread that you opened earlier.
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=121530