About Hijackthis

Hijackthis is a very popular free scan utility from Trend Micro. It is primarily used by people looking to repair an already infected computer. Usually someone whis infected with the latest spyware or malware like virtumonde, antivirus 2009, or system guard 2009.

The software scans a potentially infected computer's registry and system files for anomalies and prints out a log file in text format. This file can then be pasted into online discussion forums where qualified professionals analyze the logs and help hte potential victim determine whether or not they are infected and what their next steps should be.

There are three problems with this method.

1) The qualified "helpers" are often unpaid volunteers. Though the site owners usually do the best they can to determine whether they are qualified to provide support, they cannot guarantee the person actually know what they are doing. Hence the plethora of disclaimers you will usually find on those sites. You could end up going round and round for days with one of the well intentioned helpers only to finally discover that the person helping you is in over his or her head. This is usually the part where the helper recommends that you format your computer's hard drive and start over. Not always a practical solution -- especially if you have important data on your computer and aren't technically savvy enough to ensure it is all recovered or backed up properly. In this case we'd recommend reimage as a possible option to help you recover form a bad infection.

2) The "helpers" can and have on numerous occasions caused more damage than good while rendering support to a hijackthis user. As stated earlier, those hijackthis helper forum sites are full of disclaimers and they are there for a reason. Be wary when a complete stranger is advising you to make changes to the very heart and core of your computer operating system -- the registry and system files. They also recommend that you download a bunch of homemade tools. This also isn't always advisable.

3) As mentioned earlier the help you get from these sites is often from people who volunteer their time to help you. There is however, no guarantee that they will be available when you need them. In fact the average wait time on these sites after posting your problem and hijackthis log is about a week (often longer) and sometimes your thread is never gotten to at all. The hijackthis log section of these forums is usually just that. A section of a much larger forum community and isn't their primary focus. How long do you have to sit around and wait for a volunteer to get aorudn to helping you while someone has spyware or even a keylogger on your personal computer? A week? A month?

Overall hijackthis is a great tool but it does have it's flaws so tread carefully and consider alternatives while you are getting help with your hijackthis logs.