Stroller wrote:
<snip important, informative stuff>
Be aware that sometimes Windows isn't cleanly fixable. Although I try to
avoid it until I've exhausted avenues for a clean repair, sometimes the
best thing to do is simply to back-up & reinstall.
Think this is a great write up.
The last paragraph seems most important - given today's
professionally-authored compromises, the best thing to do may be presume
that you've been rooted with redundancy, and simply be prepared to
quickly rebuild the box from scratch.
Especially if you use the computer for business or other sensitive matters.
So arguably, one should use the second OS (Linux or Windows) as a
diagnostic tool to determine if it's compromised or not, and except for
something simple (e.g. an infection vector caught before activation by
an AntiTrojan scanner in a browser cache, mail letter, etc.), one should
simply rebuild the box.
So to the above, I'd add a "have a rebuild strategy" i.e. copies of
data (not executables), addresses, passwords, etc. that can be quickly
returned to a rebuilt OS. Windows benefits greatly from rebuilding - a
rebuilt box will seem quicker and faster than ever before, and won't
have lingering "relics" from earlier maintenance levels.
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