Virus and malware they are disseminated with devious objectives, often linked to fraudulent commercial policies. The best malware, in fact, remain hidden on the PC, without attracting attention, only to multiply and open up access to hackers, who can use the resources of our computer. However, these viruses also have self-defense mechanisms e automatically change some Windows settings to make it more difficult for the user to remove them. For example, they can disable the task manager, the registry editor, the antivirus, the firewall and can change the Internet settings, causing connection problems and opening advertising web pages.If our antivirus has failed to identify the threat in time, there is nothing left to do but reset Windows, so you can go back to work without problems. In this guide, we will show you how to reset a PC blocked by malware so as to get back to operational as quickly as possible, without wasting too much time on cleaning or restoring too long.
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Clean the system before resetting
Before proceeding with a restore, it is always advisable to clean the system of any residual malware and viruses, because in many cases they will interfere with the procedures. In order to quickly clean our computer, we can use the Malwarebytes program.
Starting this program and pressing the button Scan now we can go in search of every virus or threat present on our computer, so as to be able to remove every possible obstacle for the restoration. For greater security, we also recommend scanning the system with Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.
This tool can be launched to find any type of malware, adware, trojans, and viruses so that you no longer have any infection residues when we decide to proceed with the recovery.
We can discuss the topic of cleaning from malware on Windows by reading our guide on how to remove malware, spyware, and fake antivirus.
Quick recovery of Windows 10
After cleaning the PC, every moment is good to be able to restore the system! Even if the computer seems faster after using our cleaning tools, remember that many system files may have been damaged during the infection or some files have been replaced with pieces of viruses, which can be reactivated at any moment (in fact we risk keeping a latent infection always active on the computer!).
To proceed with fast recovery on Windows 10, open the app Settings from the Start menu at the bottom left (we can also click on the gear icon), then take us to the path Update and security -> Recovery.
We click on It begins in the section Reset the PC and we choose the voice Keep my files; if the PC to be restored is a laptop, we can also remove the default apps added by the manufacturer by selecting Change settings> Apps pre-installed Deactivate. This will start the fast recovery of Windows 10, which will keep all our personal files (Music, Video, Documents, Images, etc.), but will remove all manually added programs, restore the initial Windows settings and also restore system files that may be damaged by the virus.
At the end of the recovery (which can last even more than half an hour, depending on the speed of the disk) we will only have to reinstall our favorite programs and increase the security of the system, so as to avoid further infections on the computer; in this regard we advise you to read our guide on Better combination of programs to protect your computer.
Complete Windows restore (10, 8.1 and 7)
If unfortunately the system no longer starts, it is completely blocked at startup or no longer allows you to access the desktop, the damage carried out by the virus is high, therefore we will have to proceed with complete recovery (a real formatting).
First of all, we recover our personal files, that are still saved on our record and just waiting to be “saved”! In order to proceed with a rescue, we advise you to read all the recommended procedures in our guide on Data and file recovery from a computer that does not start, focusing in particular on the procedure in which we can use the Linux Live CD system (the best for this type of recovery).
After recovering all personal files, we recover a disk image of the version of Windows in use, helping us with the links present in our guide How to Download any version of Windows 10, Windows 7 and ; recovered the right ISO image, burn it on a blank CD or DVD or create a USB stick with Windows, so you can proceed with the installation via USB port. Once we have prepared our diskette or USB memory stick, insert the disk in the reader or the USB stick in a homonymous free port, we set the right boot order and we choose to start the system from the inserted support. In both cases the Windows installation procedure will start; we confirm the choice of the Italian language and keyboard, so we choose the item Custom: Install Windows only (advanced option).
A new window will open with all the partitions on the PC blocked by malware; we select all the partitions to present one by one and click on Delete. As soon as the window is presented as the only partition Unallocated space, select it and then click on Come on. The actual installation of Windows will now start, which will require at least half an hour. In the end we will have our Windows as new, formatted and ready to use! We can also restore the personal files we had previously saved and, to avoid problems in the future, we set up a backup of the files on Windows and we choose a good free antivirus alternative to Windows Defender, so as to better protect our system and avoid a drastic procedure such as the total formatting of the system.
Conclusions
In this guide we showed you how to clean the system of infection remnants and how to quickly restore Windows, so you can get back to work in no time. If the damage is such as to completely block the computer, instead of wasting time with unlikely restorations and cleanings, we save all our personal files and proceed with a clean installation: we will certainly take less time than trying to restore a system heavily compromised by viruses.
In another guide we showed you how to Repair the internet connection and restore the network; if instead, we wanted to move some of the programs from a locked PC to a still-functioning PC, we can read our guide on how Transfer files and move programs from one PC to another.
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