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It is best to keep system restore disabled whilst you are infected, so that any files in the system folders aren’t protected by system restore and a copy saved when you deal with them. Once your system is clean then enable system restore again.

avast won’t see or detect absolutely everything, so you need to take proactive action, ensure your Operating System, firewall and anti-virus are fully up to date. The additional programs Frank gave you to start with will give a multi-application and multi-level approach to protection.

Viruses, etc. need permission to place files in the system folders and create registry entries, don’t give it to them by default. Prevention is much better and theoretically easier than cure.

Whilst browsing or collecting email, etc. if you get infected then the malware by default inherits the same permissions that you have for your user account. So if the user account has administrator rights, the malware has administrator rights and can reap havoc. With limited rights the malware can’t put files in the system folders, create registry entries, etc. This greatly reduces the potential harm that can be done by an undetected or first day virus, etc.

Check out the link to DropMyRights (in my signature below) - Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator. This obviously applies to those NT based OSes that have administrator settings, winNT, win2k, winXP.