Windows Security Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v3.01, by Dr. Herong Yang
Downloading and Installing HijackThis
This section provides a tutorial example on how to download and install 'HijackThis', which is very popular open source diagnosis tool to list programs at browser hijacking locations on Windows systems.
What Is HijackThis? HijackThis is a very popular open source diagnosis tool to list all programs currently installed at various browser hijacking locations on Windows systems. HijackThis was originally created by Merijn Bellekom, and now is maintained as a SourceForge project.
Here is how HijackThis is described at SourceForge site, http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/:
"HijackThis is a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. HijackThis makes no separation between safe and unsafe settings in its scan results giving you the ability to selectively remove items from your machine. In addition to this scan and remove capability HijackThis comes with several tools useful in manually removing malware from a computer."
The latest version HijackThis 2.0.4 works on both Windows 7 and 8 systems.
Here is what I did to download and install the current version of HijackThis on my Windows 7 system:
1. Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/ and click the "Files" menu.
2. Click to open the "2.0.4" folder
3. Click "HijackThis.exe" to download and save "HijackThis.exe" to the C:\local\HijackThis folder. The downloaded file should have 388,608 bytes.
4. Double click "C:\local\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe". You will see HijackThis started with its main menu:
Table of Contents
About This Windows Security Book
Windows 8: System Security Review
Windows 8: System Security Protection
Windows 8 Defender for Real-Time Protection
Windows 7: System Security Review
Windows 7: System Security Protection
Windows 7 Forefront Client Security
Norton Power Eraser - Anti-Virus Scan Tool
McAfee Virus and Malware Protection Tools
Spybot - Spyware Blocker, Detection and Removal
Keeping IE (Internet Explorer) Secure
Malware (Adware, Spyware, Trojan, Worm, and Virus)
►HijackThis - Browser Hijacker Diagnosis Tool
►Downloading and Installing HijackThis
Scan Report Generated by HijackThis
HijackThis Log File Entry Types
Building "ignorelist" for HijackThis
Fixing Settings Reported by HijackThis
Generating Startup Program List by HijackThis
Listing Processes and DLL Files with HijackThis
Listing Installed Programs with HijackThis
HijackThis Configuration Settings
IE Add-on Program Listing and Removal
"Conduit Search" - Malware Detection and Removal
"Tube Dimmer", "Scorpion Saver" or "Adpeak" Malware
Malware Manual Removal Experience
Vundo (VirtuMonde/VirtuMundo) - vtsts.dll Removal
Trojan and Malware "Puper" Description and Removal
VSToolbar (VSAdd-in.dll) - Description and Removal
PWS (Password Stealer) Trojan Infection Removal