I've been having a lot of trouble with one of my user accounts where none of my apps will open and they just crash. I noticed there were some unknown files appearing in my recent files, but they disappeared after a while. I've checked the accounts, and it's just my two accounts that are active. I also disconnected from the internet and ran a scan, but it didn't find anything weird. I tried booting into safe mode to recover my system, but my keyboard got disabled when I tried to type my recovery key. Does anyone have suggestions on what I can do? Is it possible to keep my account without losing my data?
2 Answers
A clean reinstall of Windows might be your best bet here. It can be a hassle, but it's a solid way to make sure any malware is completely wiped out.
You should start by changing the passwords for your important accounts from a device that isn't compromised. After that, log out all other devices and enable two-factor authentication if you haven't already. Consider if there's any data you need to save from your current machine; if there's nothing crucial, wiping the machine and doing a fresh Windows install is often the safest route.
I can wipe all the data, but is it possible to keep some of it? Is formatting really the best so I don’t lose everything?