Ever since HijackThis was taken over by TrendMicro, the security company has been doing a good job of keeping this utility uptodate with various integrated utilities. Trend Micro HijackThis is a free utility that scan your entire computer, report in-depth information about startup items, browser hijack objects (BHO) & shell extensions from file settings and registry and save them to a log file. You can then choose to fix the selected items by selecting the entry from the list.

Here are some of the cool integrated tools and utilites available in HijackThis:

StartupList Log: Scans the system and reports autorun programs found under Windows NT UserInit, Registry, Shell & screensaver key from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI, Browser Helper Objects, Download Program Files and ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad items. It can also be run in the verbose mode for detailed information.

Process Manager: Lists running processes along with their PID and the DLL files being used by them

Hosts File Manager: Allows you to view and edit the hosts file

Delete File on Reboot: Allows you to setup Windows to delete a locked file upon next restart of the system

Delete Windows NT Service: Allows you to delete any suspicious NT service

ADS Spy: Alternate Data Streams are pieces of info hidden as metadata on files, not visible i Windows Explorer. BHOs are known to hide their files under such ADSs. HijackThis reports both legitimate and unknown ADSs. Therefore, you need to be careful before deleting anything.

Uninstall Manager: Allows you to remove an invalid entry listed in Add/Remvoe programs, edit a program’s uninstall command line parameter.

This is a must have security tool for everyone.

Download TrendMicro HijackThis 2.0.2 here

System requirements:
OS; Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista

Software:
IE 6/7 and Firefox 1.5/2.0