Solved Windows 8 Recovery Problems

I have a 64 bit W8.1 HP laptop that started exhibiting connection and download problems. I ran Malwarebytes but found close to 2000 PUPs and a handful of nasties. I cleaned them up, cleaned up the startup and it was much improved, but I ran JRT to sort of finish the process.

The first thing JRT does is make a backup. That failed. After JRT finished I checked System Restore. There's no System Protection tab listed. The tabs go right from Advanced to Remote. Then I looked in Services.msc. There's no Volume Shadow Copy service listed.

Now I find I can't even use the internet. IE11 is the only browser on this and it never actually displays the home page. I just get Internet Explorer (not responding) on the top border of the page, before the task and the page disappear.

So, since System Restore is off the plate, I thought it was time I tried out Windows 8's nifty Recovery process. I opened it and clicked on Refresh your PC without affecting your files. After Please wait.... Preparing it said Insert media. Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files. What??? I thought the whole frickin' idea of this new Recovery system was to eliminate the need for 'recovery media'? Disks? I ain't got no stinking disks!

I opened an administrator command prompt and ran sfc /scannow, which found some problems but was unable to fix them all.

If I open control panel / Internet Options and click on the Advanced tab, there is no Reset Internet Explorer settings box. I've got Restore advanced settings, but that doesn't do anything for my connectivity problems.

I really don't know what to do next.

I used another PC, downloaded the Windows Repair Tool onto a flash drive and ran it on the problem laptop. It fixed 99.9% of the problems. Thanks to all who at least read my question.

What is Windows Repair Tool. Where did you download it from?

Do you mean Windows Repair All-In-One from tweaking.com?

Ztruker said:

What is Windows Repair Tool. Where did you download it from?

Do you mean Windows Repair All-In-One from tweaking.com?

Click to expand...

Yes. Although I downloaded it from bleeping computer. And although I marked the thread as solved, the one-tenth of one percent still bothers me. AIAS, the laptop is 8.1, and I cannot seem to get the "Use a proxy server for your LAN" to remain unchecked. I would uncheck it and the checkmark would reappear. I then used Hitman Pro 3.0 and it found that a proxy server protocol needed repair. After the repair the box remained unchecked until a reboot, when the checkmark came back. Is this an 8.1 problem, or am I still infected?

Let's see what starts when you boot your computer.

Download and run Startup List (does not need to be installed, just run it).
When done, click File then Save as and save Startuplist.txt to your Desktop or somewhere you can find it.
Start a reply here and paste the contents of Startuplist.txt into it.

I was actually hoping that somebody knew of this issue and had a quick fix. The laptop in question really belongs to my brother-in-law. I'm a retired system analyst and my extended family are always bringing me their 'broken' electronics. He was absolutely thrilled about the progress I'd made and didn't care a bit about having to uncheck the proxy box after every boot.

Which is to say that I'm no longer in physical possession of the unit, and am unable to carry out any diagnostics. Had someone offered that quick fix I was hoping for, I could have implemented it, but a back and forth exchange of forum tests and results is not possible at this time.

Thanks for this response, though. If the situation worsens and merits him returning the unit, I'll give you a holler.