Several important locations will be scanned in the process including running programs, browser plugins, winlogon notifications, browser helper objects, Internet Explorer toolbars or Windows Services. FreeFixer does not rate the findings which means that it is up to the user to perform further research to find out if they are dangerous or not. The software makes however use of a whitelist to remove system processes, services and other official files from the list of results to narrow down the result list to potentially dangerous ones.

Each item will be listed with its name and location, other relvant values depending on the type of item and options to lookup information about it on the Internet and to delete it.

Results can be saved in a log file for further processing. Selected items can be fixed (that means deleted) by clicking on the Fix button in the software. It is usually a good idea to perform a search on the Internet before deleting any files from the list. Some can be excluded just by looking at their names while some do not give the slightest hint at what they are.

Freefixer makes use of a database that is located on the developers website which contains additional information about each item. One interesting aspect of the database is that it will display user actions by displaying a pie chart detailing how many users kept and removed the item from their computer system.

It’s unfortunately only available in German but since it does not require lots of user input it can be valuable for non-German speakers as well. The only required input is a click on the button “Suchlauf Starten” to start the scan of the system. A check of the box below that button will perform a long scan of the system that requires a reboot.

Once started the application moves the mouse around and tests several behaviors. After a while it asks the user to input text. This happens three times to see if any of the running processes are reacting on the data input.

In the end all potentially dangerous applications are listed. The software seems to have troubles with Mozilla software because it did list several Firefox and Thunderbird files as potentially dangerous. The most dangerous files are listed at the top with their system path.

AVG Anti Rootkit is a free software that scans a computer for rootkits and removes them if one or more of those have been identified. The anti rootkit application can be used to either quickly scan the computer for possible rootkits and the other to make an in depth scan which takes longer but is more thorough. The in depth scan for Rootkits takes some time depending on the amount of files and size of your hard drives.

Update: AVG Anti-Rootkit Free has been discontinued in 2006. The program has been integrated into various AVG products including (in 2010) in AVG Anti-Virus Free, AVG Anti-Virus 2012 and AVG Internet Security 2012.

The free version of AVG Anti-Virus is available on the official AVG website. Just download and install it on your Windows system to protect the PC from malicious software and Internet based attacks.

Please note that the free version has limitations, including less frequent and prioritized updates, no email or telephone support, less interface and software customizations as well as no server support. The free product version may also only be used on home and non-commercial use systems.