Reinstall or Restore?

[PAT]

I have Windows XP Home which is infected with spyware and
hijacked browser. If removal of these fails, should I
reinstall the OS or use restore? Can reinstall be
accomplished without losing installed programs, drivers,
etc? Perhaps I should just reformat drive and start over.
Any recommendations appreciated.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

If you rid your system of all the spyware etc., there shouldn't be any need
to reinstall or restore:

Try the following programs to check for any spyware that might be on your
system:

Ad-Aware - www.lavasoftusa.com
CWShredder - http://forum.aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip
Spy Sweeper - www.webroot.com

Try SpyWareBlaster to stop intrusions:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Also see the following links:

http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spyware.asp