Windows system restore...does it nuke programs?

[davester]

A friend of mine has a Win XP laptop that is misbehaving (I'm guessing a damaged registry due to mass quantities of spyware that I purged from the machine). She has an original restore disk that she made when she first got the machine. If we do a system restore to that state, I'm wondering if it will nuke all the programs on the machine since my understanding is that it rebuilds the registry. Does anybody know?

[samintx]

No, does not nuke anything but restores you back to whatever date. Great ...

[Mike Sellers]

[quote samintx]No, does not nuke anything but restores you back to whatever date. Great ...
Seem to me it would nuke any program installed after the restore disk was created though. If the disk was created when the machine was new then that pretty much nukes everything but the original programs.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Do not format the original drive unless she did that to start with because it likely has a restore partition. Do a backup if you have a drive handy (needs to be NTFS format for files larger than 4 GB ). WinXP Home does not have NTBACKUP.EXE installed by default but it can be added from the install CD.

A Factory Restore usually will wipe the drive and return it to 'like new' where the user will have to create a new user account and reauthorize Windows. Loss of user files, email archives, and bookmarks is generally expected.

A repair of the registry is possible but it depends on what you use and how experienced you are with it.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Sorry, I read through again. I thought you were talking about an OEM System Restore Disk, not a Restore Point.

A rollback to an earlier Restore Point can work but it might require any programs installed since to be reinstalled. I tried to get it to work a couple times and was never satisfied with the results when compared to a restore from a true backup. It will not remove/replace corrupted files or drivers.

Edit: Reading through the Help entry for System Restore, it implies it only saves points going back a couple of weeks. Rebuilding the Registry might help but I would guess that the infection stems from a longer date and you will still have problems. It should not be very dangerous (YMMV) since it is supposed to revert back to the current state if it fails.

[AllGold]

You're talking about a factory restore disk, not a System Restore Point. Restore points only affect the system directories and leave user files intact.

The factory restore disk should in theory erase everything and return the machine to the way it was when the restore disk was made. But the amount of nukeage may vary depending on the manufacturer.

[Numo]

[quote AllGold]You're talking about a factory restore disk, not a System Restore Point. Restore points only affect the system directories and leave user files intact.

The factory restore disk should in theory erase everything and return the machine to the way it was when the restore disk was made. But the amount of nukeage may vary depending on the manufacturer.
Are you saying the amount of restorage depends on the amount of nukeage or vice versa?

[AllGold]

Ha.

I'm saying I ran what I thought would be a full wipe system restore on an HP desktop and while the system was nuked, I was surprised to find some of my (user) files still there.