How in the Tech

Get Serious about Spyware Removal with HijackThis

By Adam Myers ⋅ January 15, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Security

Suspect or know that you’ve got a spyware infection? If you are like most savvy users, you will run a system scan with your anti-virus tool of choice followed by a spyware scan; perhaps Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. Ad-Aware, or similar tools, are pretty effective at spyware removal but they aren’t perfect. As spyware gets more and more sophisticated, it becomes harder and harder to fully eradicate the infected computer. Trend Micro’s HijackThis is a free application that, while not exactly a spyware removal utility, does a fine job – with one major caveat – HijackThis is not for the faint of heart.

1. Download, install, and run HijackThis. Begin a system scan by clicking the appropriate button.



2. The scan will take a few minutes to run and then return a results screen. Looks pretty complicated doesn’t it? Down the left-hand side you will see a column with contents of: R0, R1, O2, O4, etc. If you click the Info button in the Other stuff box you’ll get the definitions of what those entries mean. Basically, what you are looking at our key Windows registry entries that contain potential spyware and legit software alike. HijackThis does not target specific spyware, the onus is on you to identify the problem and address it directly.



3. I’m confidant my system is not infected but if it were, I would skim the results for strange looking .exe files. Anything suspicious, a quick Google search should answer the legitimacy of the program. Additionally, HijackThis isn’t just for spyware removal. In my example here, I’ve select a few programs that iTunes installs that aren’t really necessary in my particular situation.



4. When Fix checked is clicked, the selected entries will be deleted and removed from your computer. It is clear that there are a number of false positives in my scan and it should also be clear that you can do some serious damage to a system if you aren’t certain in what you are doing. Be careful!

HijackThis is an excellent tool and is sometimes the only way to fully remove some of today’s complicated spyware or trojans – short of a complete format and reinstall of Windows.