The best defense against software problems: disk imaging

My previous posting discussed various approaches to dealing with a Windows computer that's been infected by malicious software (malware).

The easy approach, installing anti-malware software and having it scan the machine, is the least likely to fully remove the infection. At the other end of the spectrum, re-installing Windows is guaranteed to remove the infection but at a huge cost in terms of time and effort to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Somewhere in the middle is removing the hard drive and scanning it from an uninfected machine.

But, there is another alternative: roll back the entire C disk to a known clean state.