After a security event, a technician removes malware from an affected laptop and disconnects the laptop from the network. Which of the following should the technician do to prevent the operating…

Enabling System Restore immediately after malware removal risks restoring the system to a point where the malware was still present, re-infecting the system.

System Restore creates snapshots of system files and the registry. If these restore points were created while the system was infected, enabling or using System Restore could revert the system to an infected state, undoing the malware removal. Disabling it ensures no tainted restore points are used and a clean state can be established.

Antivirus software should be enabled to prevent future infections, but the question asks how to prevent the OS from automatically returning to an infected state from existing system features.

Disabling antivirus would leave the system vulnerable and contradicts best security practices for post-malware removal.

Educating the user is an important preventative measure against future infections but does not address the immediate risk of the operating system automatically reverting to an infected state from existing system features.