Had to restore comp from an older image file. Instead of doing the tedious task of finding and copy/paste files newer than image date, I simply copied the 2/2/2012 Documents and Settings folder to a backup drive.
(See Attached)
You can image my surprise when I saw the copied Documents and Settings folder, and how it differed from the one from the image date of 11/24/2011. ???
Symptoms manifested primarily as a sluggish and slow mouse, and slow text cursor. Attempted System Restore, and that hung on restart for twenty minutes, never did show System Restore Incomplete or Successful. Force-quit, restarted system, now had Avast! Unsecured warnings, Firewall inactive, Windows Defender gone, etc. Could not repair Avast!.
Restore of image file was successful. All security programs running, just needed to be updated to newest versions. Scans of Avast!, Malwarebytes, SUPERAntispyware, of the 2/2/2012 Documents & Settings folder do not show infection or malware after updating to latest definitions.
Removed Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash ActiveX and plugin, as Secunia PSI was warning Firefox was seriously insecure.
What could be the reason for the difference between the two versions? Is it possible the reason for failure of restore or system to properly boot after restore is because of differences in the two versions of Documents and Settings? Just curious as to where the additional folders came from?
Your issue does not seem to be avast related. Have you checked “all” software since you “restored(?)” your machine. Personally I don’t use Secunia PSI as I see it as too intrusive. I also noticed your screen shots were of two different drives “C” and “F”. Why did you need to do a restore in the first place?
Why did you need to do a restore in the first place?
Sorry, issue is one that affected Avast!, but is not one caused by Avast!
Self-protection modules in Avast! are supposed to mitigate or block changes that prevent the software from running as it should? is what I am asking.
I restored because the quickest way to getting a fully operational machine was using a disk image from 11/24/2011. Current status of machine on 2/2/2012 was a disaster, with all security programs either not functional, or disabled to some extent.
All software has been checked and updated since restore.
Hence the archived Documents and Settings .jpeg was attached, as was the then current Document and Settings .jpeg, so others could view what I think were changes made to this folder over time. You are right, the .jpeg of Documents and Settings on Drive F: is the one in question, and is a result of backing up this folder before I restored the system using the archived disk image.
If you are interested, I can provide images of folder content within the NetworkService and LocalService folders. What my question was, why are they there?
Just checked, no change to current Documents and Settings folder attached. It is the same as yesterday.
As I said, I came upon this by accident, by simply copying the Document and Settings folder as a shortcut to performing a Search and copying files newer than 11/24/2011 to a backup media. It was when I saw the differences, that alone made me wonder.
If posting this here is not pertinent, you have my apologies.