reinstalling Windows system

[bayedo]

The trojan "sysWOW64" has invaded my system. I've been advised to reinstall the operatng system. But I don't want to lose all my stuff accumulated over the years! I have HP Recovery on the d: drive ond on 4 cd's. Can I use Recovery to restore my computer without losing everything? If so, how?

Oh, and would these disks have Windows 7's SP1?

Thanks,

Wm. Bastedo

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@bayedo

Sorry, but the advice you are being given is not the best.  Whenever a PC is infected, there is really no accurate way of know all the places the infection could have happened and where the components are hiding.  Merely restoring the OS in insufficient because it runs a high risk of leaving the infection agents in place --especially since they did NOT come with the OS and are not part of it.

The only safe option is to do a complete factory reset -- and this erases everything from the hard drive.

So, you need to do the following:

1) Product keys:  Use one of these tools to make an offline record of the product keys for the OS and other apps on your PC: https://www.lifewire.com/free-product-key-finder-programs-2625119

2) Make note of all the apps you have installed and obtain new installation files needed to reinstall them

3) Copy off all the personal files and folders you want to retain to a USB stick or external drive

THEN, you can use the disks to do a factory reset.

Good Luck