Me again - Windows Vista restore question

[Ree]

I was asked by my sister to look at her boyfriend's computer because it was a bit of a mess, and was running really slow. It has Windows Vista installed on it.

Turns out, he isn't overly knowledgeable about computers, and so, he had accidentally installed a trial version of AVG instead of the free version, but the computer already had Norton 360 installed on it.
The Norton had expired, and he didn't understand that, just because it has expired, that doesn't mean it stops working.
The trial run of AVG had also expired, and he was now getting the popups warning that he had to buy it now.

The 2 AV systems were pretty much fighting each other and bogging the whole system down so that it took about 30 minutes for it to just startup and run, and even then, doing anything also took ages.

I started off by removing the AVG.
Since they actually had just bought Norton 2012 and wanted to put it on, I removed Norton 360 as well.

When I tried to install the 2012 program, it came up that the system was incompatible, as it needed to have Service Pack 1 or higher.

I checked for the updates and saw that the Service Pack was there, but just needed to be installed.
It came up to 100%, and the progress bar was solid all the way across. It said that it was 100% completed, but then it just sat there for about a half hour.

It was getting really late, and I needed to get home because I had to work the next day, so, against my better judgment, I shut the computer down.
It said that updates were installing, and "do not turn off" .

I told them to just leave it alone, and the computer would do its thing and just shut down.

My sister says that, when she got back home after dropping me off, her boyfriend had the computer up and was clicking away at stuff, saying it wasn't working, and he couldn't bring Windows up because he kept getting error messages.

I went back again the next night, and I have no idea what the hell happened. He was right. I couldn't even get it to come up in safe mode.
I finally ended up doing a restore with backup to take it back to factory settings.

It came back up and was working fine, but now I can't figure out how to get the backup to install the files.
The file is there under "Backup" and it's dated for the day and time that I did the restore, but I have no idea how to proceed from there.
I went to "Backup and Restore" and it says an admin needed to create a backup.

After the restore, when I checked for Windows updates, there were 105 updates to download, and even after a couple of hours, it was still only at about 68%. Again, it was really late and I had to work the next day, so I left it and told her boyfriend to just let it run and NOT to touch anything. (I have no idea if it ever finished downloading properly or not.)

I set his account name and password, but now he says he can't login.
I don't know if the issue is caps lock on or off.

I am going back either tomorrow or Sunday to try and finish up.

Now, I am not computer illiterate, but I am limited in what I know. Sometimes, I know just enough to trash one.

I am not overly familiar with Vista, so I'm at a bit of a loss here.
She has been singing my praises to her boyfriend as a computer genius, even though I keep pointing out that I am not as good as she thinks I am, and I really am limited in my abilities.
He wanted to take it to Staples, because he had taken it there before to get it all cleaned up.
My sister was not impressed with the job that Staples did, because it was so hard to use the computer, but I have no idea if the whole double AV happened before or after he had taken it to them.
I can't imagine they would have left it like that.

Anyway, I've already stepped into it, so I want to finish it.

Any suggestions on what to do next?

[Der Cute]

Are you saying that after you nuked the computer and reinstalled Vista, that there are files (what kind) are stuck in the "restore repair" section?

I think this is applicable.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html It looks very labor intensive.

Ok. What I would do from here on when you're doing the restore stuff: USE ADMIN ACCOUNT that you've created for yourself. During a basic install there is a question to create password for the Admin account, God level. I hope you created and saved that one. If not, we can work around that.
I would tell everyone to LAY OFF THE MACHINE until it's proven to work properly and has been backed up when it's at "perfect we like this" level.
Get windows updates onto a usb stick, maybe?
Get the antivirus .exe install on the usb stick.
Find mfg website and start pulling drivers, I like to use the apps on the website for pulling multiple things down.
Get a couple of utilities on there too, ccleaner, magical jellybean.
(disconnect from internet for security reasons.)
Get into Admin account.
Delete everyone's account besides yours.
Start installing the updates.
Lock the admin account.

They want it fixed? They have to lay off.
Vista is known to hang for a long time after an install/reset. Leave it be. Threaten finger removal if anyone turns it off or clicks on stuff.
Overnight or so you should have the major patches for the machine installed. You will want to reboot a time or two, make sure everything starts up smoothly.
Install the anti virus.
Reconnect to internet, update anti virus.
you save time by using another internet connection to pull the major installs/issues down while the install here is running.
install the drivers, etc.
Create user accounts, passwords.
Make sure your own account is not the Master Admin account.
Run CCleaner to tidy up temp files, registry stuff, etc.
Back this created happy nothing odd installed - IMMEDIATELY. Once that's backed up and you know it's all working, then let them play on it.

Vista is a pita on installs.

[Ree]

I created the admin account, and I was logged in under it when I was trying to restore the files.

The files show under the main drive "C" as a file called "BACKUP".
I open it, and there is a subfile with the date and time that I did the restore. It looks like it contains programs that were on the computer before, but when I used Vista's "Backup and Restore" function, and chose restore, and tried to select that file, that's when I got the message that there was no restore point created and it had to be created by an admin.

(Unfortunately, I am not in front of that computer, and I didn't write any of the error messages down, so I am going from memory.)

[Der Cute]

Hm. I think I'd like to see the error messages.
Would you happen to have the install disc (physical CD for installs?)
It would be used here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...te-pc-restore/

The first weblink I posted shows that you can manually pull pieces out. You might need to do that.

[Ree]

There aren't any discs.
The installation files are on one of the drives.

[Der Cute]

Ree when you were trying to restore the files you wanted, were you in Safe Mode? Or just a regular login?
Do it in safe mode.

I figured as much, Ree. about the discs.
Please go back to my original post and look at the link, it sounds like you have done the 'backup restore' but aren't able to pull things back out to the way you want them.

The first link I posted shows you how to pull things out one by one, which is what you MAY have to do.