Hijack This - how do you know...?????

[kxh29]

Hello All:

I have been "wacked" a few times by viruses, and I have used HiJack This to fix most if not all of the problems.

Question: What is the baseline that is used to compare what HiJack This reurns..???

I mean, is there a file out there on tells you this is the what your Registry should look like? A good congfiguration? How can you find out what it is supposed to look like......?

[stupidenator]

Your registry will look vary depending on what programs you have installed on your computer. Usually, I can just type in the process name into Google to find out what the process does and whether or not it should be there.

[kxh29]

Your registry will look vary depending on what programs you have installed on your computer. Usually, I can just type in the process name into Google to find out what the process does and whether or not it should be there.

Okay. But what if you cannot access the internet. I guess my questions is , Is there as STANDARD list or "view" of what your registry should look like, say for instance a COMPAQ Presario...???

[gerbil]

Nope. For a fresh copy of say, xp home, installed on a certain make and model computer with certain hardware with certain drivers with certain HD configuration and fully formatted with no other apps or files and no changes to any settings then just possibly you could compare the registries... but i wouldn't bother personally. It's a big file, and you only need to know a few regions - viruses, trojans etc operate in selected areas. Throw in a few other areas that affect your settings and performance, but which often you can alter via the GUI.. an that's it.
Hijackthis targets those areas of the registry invaded commonly by malware and also lists running processes and those on autostart [which may have stopped by the time you run HT..] generally the entries returned are those of special interest. You get to know many both genuine and dodgy ones, others you check.

[kxh29]

Nope. For a fresh copy of say, xp home, installed on a certain make and model computer with certain hardware with certain drivers with certain HD configuration and fully formatted with no other apps or files and no changes to any settings then just possibly you could compare the registries... but i wouldn't bother personally. It's a big file, and you only need to know a few regions - viruses, trojans etc operate in selected areas. Throw in a few other areas that affect your settings and performance, but which often you can alter via the GUI.. an that's it.
Hijackthis targets those areas of the registry invaded commonly by malware and also lists running processes and those on autostart [which may have stopped by the time you run HT..] generally the entries returned are those of special interest. You get to know many both genuine and dodgy ones, others you check.

Gerbil:

Thanks for the response. Just one last question. Where or what are the areas most infected by the malware. Me myself, am a UNIX guy. So, I am trying to learn how to combat this type of thing, especially since my "DAUGHTER" insists on downloading from myspace, youtube et.al......:@

Thanks again....

[gerbil]

here:http://www.malwarehelp.org/understanding-and-interpreting-hjt1.html
take care not to break stuff... :)