What is HijackThis?

In a nutshell, its a tool to allow trained malware experts to spot and remove potential harmfull executables, links, BHOs etc.. however a major word of warning this tool is not to be taken or used lightly as it has the potential to disable or corrupt drivers, software or the OS if the wrong files are deleted, mainly as most malware hides itself very well in ligitimate OS .exe file names, by just changing the odd letter or numeral. These can be very hard to spot and if the file removed was a crucial .exe then you may crash not only a software application but the OS, leading to a reinstall.


The "Fix" button will remove the entry checked, so be very careful, Hijackthis does however backup what it removes.


Does the HijackThis program show what's running at any given moment? Not always as some services are not listed, so dont use it to check running processes etc, its not a tool for that.



Or what should be running but isn't? NO

As for msmsgs that is your MSN messenger IM app and has nothing to so with "Shoot the Messenger" which disables the messenger service in the OS ( if you have XP and SP2.. the messenger service is disabled by default on install of SP2 ) the messenger service is a network alert tool for admins and other IT bods to send messages over networks, but became an easy route into tricking unsuspecting users that the messages were a legitimate one.. but once clicked would infect said PC with malware. Some info from MS

hope some of your questions are answered.