One Click Repairs For Windows Components Disabled By Viruses

An easy and safe way to re-enable or repair several critical Windows components is to use SUPERAntiSpyware. Viruses often disable common Windows system and web browser components. Unfortunately, removing the virus does not enable them again – leaving behind a system which is virus free but partly crippled.

There are many components that can be affected but typical issues include: Task Manager is disabled (to stop you closing the virus process) and System Restore is disabled (to stop you restoring the system to a date before the virus attack).

How To Repair? Most of the damage can be fixed by editing the Windows Registry to re-enable the components – there are many such tweaks around the net but messing with the Registry is risky if you make a mistake or don’t know what you’re doing…

A much easier and safer way to re-enable or repair several critical Windows components is to use SUPERAntiSpyware. It’s a mouthful so we’ll just call it SAS. SAS is a popular free program for removing malware (we will review the virus removal aspect of it soon) but it also has a much overlooked set of 27 ‘one click’ fixes for the most common problems.

How To Use SAS ‘One Click’ Repairs – We recommend using the free SAS Portable version (which doesn’t need installing) – download the Personal Edition from here.

  • The downloaded program will be a random filename like SAS_8132A5.com
  • Double click the SAS_xyz file to run SAS Portable
  • Press the ‘Click Here To Start’ button then choose your preferred language – the default is English
  • Press the ‘OK’ button to open the main SAS program window
  • Click the ‘Preferences’ button to open the SAS Control Center window
  • Click the ‘Repairs’ tab. Here are 27 of the most common system and web browser repairs – typically hijacked or disabled/corrupted by viruses.

Warning: If you are able to create a system restore point, do so now before attempting any repairs. Do not run a repair if you do not have the problem identified by it. Most of the repairs will reset the component back to its original (default) state – if your component is working ok but has been modified by legitimate software you will lose those legitimate modifications.

  • Click on a repair item to show its description and, if you wish to continue, click the ‘Perform Repair’ button to run it.
  • After you have run the repair(s) click ‘Close’ and then ‘Close’ again to finish – you may need to restart your computer for the repair to take effect.

What Are The Common Repairs?

See the descriptions underneath each Repair Item for a useful summary of what the repair fixes. In our experience the most commonly used are:

Enable Task Manager – see ‘What Sort Of Components’ section above

Enable SFC (System File Checker) – see our article on how to repair Windows with SFC

Enable Folder Options – required to show hidden/system files and to change other folder settings

Home Page reset – for Internet Explorer

Reset Internet Zone security settings – for Internet Explorer

Repair broken System Restore service – see ‘What Sort Of Components’ section above

Repair Safeboot key – required to start up in Safe Mode