what happened to programs etc laptop?

[oompaloompa]

this morning my admin window was missing a few desktop programs, the browsers were present but IE was a blank page on icon but still worked and the fonts had changed on both browsers FF and IE, plus all bookmarks were gone.Most importantly my data safe was missing.

my other windows (non-admin) users seemed ok.

so on admin I did system restore and I was panicking as usually system restore does not work anymore on this laptop, but it did work, it gave message that settings not changed, but in fact it was all restored. phew....

so my issues;

what happened?

does anyone get this issue with system restore not working (whilst it did this time, it usally doesnt and it gives error message).

my backup method is copy on usb, but whilst it works for indiidual files, it does not work for data safe, it stores the program but if you copy it back to say another PC, it is just a new program, not my password protected version holding my stuff.

[yotano211]

Most likely you caught a program, usually virus or malware, it is very common for malware to shut down any computer's system restore functions.

I use this malware program to scan for anything.

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

[GreenBean]

There appears something bad happened over the past days.

Had similar issues with IE.

Can not wait to get back to APPLE.

[oompaloompa]

I run malwarebytes sometimes, maybe I should do it more often, but that does not explain why it has not functioned for months, as it does get cleaned, unless it is a virus that is not getting picked up.......

what is weird is SR usually does nothing, not working, this time it worked, even though it gave me message that it had not workd.

[oompaloompa]

Originally Posted by GreenBean

There appears something bad happened over the past days.

Had similar issues with IE.

Can not wait to get back to APPLE.

I would use my ipad for stealth accs, but there s no multi user function, is there?

[rsot]

I tried out the ipad - no real way of multi user function :( only thing I can think off that is close (but useless) is to force a logout and make a whole new user...going to try that out when I take back my ipad on the weekend

[BigCJ]

Please do not solely on Malewarebytes for this type of thing.

They are GREAT for a free company, but there are somethings that they just do not pick up.

I do 2 quick scans a week with MBs alongside 2 other scanning tools.

[MM78]

I use Eset Smart Security 7, does it all.