Does a Full System Restore Remove Viruses?

When your computer is infected with malware and viruses, it can be a nightmare to fix. Especially when you have done an antivirus scan and the problem still remains.

One solution is to restore your system to a previous point in time. You can do this via the built-in System Restore or Image Recovery features in Windows, as well as a third-party backup and recovery tool like Acronis.

Let’s take a closer look at how these different recovery solutions work, whether all malware will be removed, and which option suits you best.

What is System Restore?

The System Restore feature allows you to revert your computer’s system files, settings, and registry to a previous state, prior to virus infection or other system errors.

To access it, simply type restore in the Windows search bar and click: Create a restore point.

Here you can configure which drives to protect with restore points, create a restore point right away, or click through to choose a point to restore.

On Windows 10, restore points are created automatically.

System Restore is also available under Advanced Boot Options by holding the F8 key before the Windows logo appears during bootup.

Will I lose personal files when doing a restoration?

No, a restore point is a snapshot of the system, only. This means all of the system settings and programs will revert to their state at the time of the restore point. For example, if today you change your screensaver settings and then restore a point from last week, those settings will be gone.

However, your personal files, such as images or videos will remain as they are at the current point in time. E.g., if you transfer a photo from your phone to your computer today and restore your computer to a point last week, your photo will still be there.

Does a restore point remove all viruses?

Doing a system restoration is a good way to remove viruses and damage to the system caused by viruses. It will replace corrupted system files and changes to the Registry. However, there is no guarantee your system will be completely malware free.

This is because malware can infect and hide within personal files that are not removed during the restore process. Viruses might also be hiding on external drives or other areas of the network.

Perform an Image Recovery

Windows Image Recovery is a step further than a restore point. It creates a snapshot, or image, of the entire Windows installation and drives. This includes the operating system, system settings, and installed programs.

But unlike a restore point, this also includes all personal files. Here’s how to get started:

1. Recovery images are not created automatically. You must go to Settings, select Update & Security and click on Backup.
2. Here, select the drive to back up to. This can be a secondary hard drive, an external hard drive, or a USB stick.
3. Under More options, you can restore a backup by clicking on Restore files from current backup.

Image Recovery is also available under Advanced Boot Options by holding the F8 key before the Windows logo appears during bootup.

Does Image Recovery remove all viruses?

Image Recovery does a better job than System Restore at clearing your system of malware and viruses because it leaves no files in their current state. The downside is you will lose any recent personal files or settings in the process.

In some cases, preliminary malware may still exist deep in the system if it was already present when the backup was made. However, if the backup was clean then your computer will now be clean.

Use Backup & Restore Tools

There are many third-party tools that can carry out backups and restore them if you’re facing a virus infection. Depending on the software, you can usually choose what drives and files to include in the backup, with similar results to Windows’ System Restore or Image Recovery features.

You should also be able to set backups to run on a schedule, so you always have a recent point to restore to and don’t have to remember to make the backups manually.

When do I need to use Windows Repair Tools?

If you have cleared malware and viruses using a good antivirus but are still getting errors and other problems, restoring the system with a backup isn’t the only option.

Windows repair tools like Fortect will replace missing or damaged system files with clean copies from its database. This way you do not have to rely on a backup that may still have hidden malware.

Furthermore, it will repair the registry and remove junk files, which most antivirus software ignore.

All you have to do is:

1. Download and Install Fortect on your computer.
2. Launch and accept the scan to detect problems with Windows.
3. Click Start Repair (after product activation) to begin the recovery process.
4. Wait for the process to complete and restart your PC if prompted.

With Fortect you do not lose personal files or system settings, while fully repairing your system.

Using a Windows restore point or restoring a backup using Image Recovery or a backup tool can help remove viruses. However, System Restore can still leave your PC infected, while backup recovery will lose personal data.

Before resorting to either option, a Windows repair tool like Fortect can help bring your computer back to optimal performance.