[Salamander]

I’ve got the paid version.

I ran it and it killed some of my ‘phone home apps’ associated with Adobe Photoshop/Acrobat and things have been miserable ever since.

[my ISP said I ‘had a virus’..well yeah, I’m running Windows, aren’t I?]

Gotta update my Adobe/Corel progs manually now.

Stupid ISP techie -insisted- I delete that ‘false positive’ stuff before they’d unlock my email and it turned out that wasn’t the problem at all...:-\

They were the ones who demanded that I run AVG, too.

Saving/exporting/reformatting/reinstalling everything takes me *days* and I’m not in the mood for that right now.

[oh8eleven]

If you use a router, reset it via the reset button -- then change your password.
I went through two full days of virus and malware hunting, always coming up clean.
Finally dawned on me it was the router (I had done a reset months earlier, but forgot to change the default pw).

[TomGuy]

Saving/exporting/reformatting/reinstalling everything takes me *days* and I’m not in the mood for that right now.

I started using imagining for major backups several years ago. On my XPs I used a program called CloneGenius (now a part of spotmau.com).

My newer Win7 laptops and desktop have manufacturer imaging programs included.

I image after any major upgrades. I also keep my data on a separate partition. Imaging the OS partition/drive usually takes about 45 minutes. If you need to 'reinstall' the OS, it is easier to apply the imaging restore, because it contains all your settings and installed software.

Imaging has saved me many times. I do occasionally use System Restore, if I see a problem do to recent new or upgraded software. But for major restoring, I use the most recently created 'image' file. Applying an image restore usually takes about 45 minutes, depending on the number of installed programs, etc.