Restore XP to an earlier (happier!) state

Note to administrator: This is mainly an XP question, but it does involve an element about internet connection. I’ve submitted it to the XP forum but you may want to direct it elsewhere. Thanks.

Hi all,

I'm pretty familiar with 98 & 2000 but a bit of a novice with XP, so apologies if the following is rather basic.

My mate George has asked if I can help with problems he's encountered running XP & also connecting to the net. He's bought the PC very recently but without software preinstalled - he decided to do the installation himself but without any tech. knowledge. All seemed to work well at first but then he encountered problems (the PC would shut down & restart without warning after being online for 10 minutes or so) and it was then difficult reconnecting to blue yonder (which he thinks may be because of an incorrect installation of McAfee Firewall software) he did what he describes to me as “altered a few settings and filesâ€. Unfortunately, he doesn’t now know what these changes were or in what order they were done.

As I say, I’d like to help him and wonder whether there’s a way in XP of returning the system to a previous (or the default) state (I don't want to have to reformat his disk & redo the whole installation!). Ideally, I'd like to 'undo' all changes made to XP and all changes made to other programmes since last Saturday. If I could do that then I could uninstall McAfee using Control Panel / Uninstall Software & try his internet connection again to see if his theory is right. If it works, fine – I’ll then reinstall McAfee properly! If not, then should I uninstall the internet software (IE) and reinstall it, or perhaps just alter the set up until it works?

If anyone can assist with the above questions then I’d be grateful as it’d improve my knowledge (and help a friend out). Thanks in advance for all thoughts posted to the BBS and I will read them before I visit him tomorrow evening.

 

Thanks very much to you both for your help. I looked at George's PC again after visiting the links re Blaster & Sasser. A virus looked likely and, because of my limited technical confidence (and complete lack of liability insurance!) I suggested that he pay a professional local company to sort out the problem. He's done this & says that all now seems OK. Unfortunately I'm unable to provide further useful feedback, but thanks again for your suggestions.

Incidentally, this whole problem may not have occured if he'd waited for me to have time to come round and do the initial installation for him (which would have included working virus-protection software!)

Cheers,