HiJackThis is a sophisticated security tool that checks a computer running Windows 2000 or higher for possible signs of hijacked applications. It does check lots of different elements like startup items, Browser Helper Objects, running processes and the like and presents a log of the results at the end. This log is hard to read for beginners because it contains “good” and possible “bad” elements in it and it requires knowledge of those elements to make a distinction between elements that you have to keep and those that are indeed malicious in nature.

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Runscanner is a security scanner much like Hijack This but aims to be helpful for all kinds of users. It has three different modes depending on the experience level of the user, they are called Beginner, Classic and Expert Mode. The Beginner Mode scans the system and writes the results in a log file that can be given to security experts in various forums that are mentioned on the Runscanner homepage.

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HiJack This is a very sophisticated security analyzer that generates an advanced report of various registry settings and files in your computer. The difference to many other security analyzers such as trojan scanners is that Hijack This makes not difference between “good” and “bad” settings but displays everything that it founds in its security log. It is then up to the user to find potentially harmful files and settings and remove them from his computer.

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