I recently ran a suspicious PowerShell script and now I'm feeling really anxious about potential malware on my computer. I went ahead and reset my PC, choosing the cloud option to reinstall Windows from Microsoft. But even after that, I'm still worried about whether the virus is truly gone. Are there any other steps I should take to ensure my computer is clean?
4 Answers
If you want peace of mind, get the Windows Media Creation Tool to make a USB. Boot from it and use 'diskpart' to clean the drive completely before reinstalling. It’s a bit extreme, but it ensures all parts of the system are clean.
The safest way is to reinstall Windows using a USB stick. That way, you know you're starting fresh without any baggage.
Resetting your PC can help, but it's not a guaranteed way to eliminate all malware. If you're really concerned, I recommend doing a complete reinstall instead of just a reset. Even that isn't foolproof, though!
For better security, consider doing a clean install with a Windows installation USB. Make sure that USB was prepared on a computer without any malware. That way, you wipe everything during the installation. Just keep in mind that some malware can survive resets initiated from an infected machine.
I actually used the Windows 11 reset option and selected remove everything. My friend suggested going with cloud reinstall. Can you tell me more about the risk of BIOS malware?