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:

HijackThis Main Menu
HijackThis Main Menu

Table of Contents

 About This Windows Security Book

 Windows 8: System Security Review

 Windows 8: System Security Protection

 Windows 8 System Recovery

 Windows 8 Defender for Real-Time Protection

 Windows 7: System Security Review

 Windows 7: System Security Protection

 Windows 7 System Recovery

 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 Firefox Secure

 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

 MS08-001 Vulnerability on Windows Systems

 Antivirus System PRO

 References

 Full Version in PDF/ePUB