HJT DIY advice from Google

[Maik]

This may well have been posted before (in which case, please accept my apologies and just ignore it)

http://www.google.com/support/bin/answe ... swer=10366 and http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=5514

Wouldn’t this seem to encourage inexperienced users to try to analyse their own HJT log?

[NonSuch]

You're right... that could very well encourage inexperienced people to try analyzing their own HJT log. To make matters worse, the information posted there is both obsolete and incorrect. I really hope no one makes use of it.

[MMJ]

I could have wrote a better tut.

The thing that people don't realize is that HJT is not a malware removal tool, it is a diagnostic tool.

If it finds an infection and you just check it then fix it then you are just removing some entries that malware left behind, however that entry is usually just the tip of the iceberg.

[NonSuch]

Actually, when you "fix" an entry with HijackThis, you're removing something from the registry. There have been some rather devastating results when well-meaning but ill-formed people have "fixed" everything listed in their (or someone else's ) HijackThis log. The problem was compounded in those cases where there were no backups made because HijackThis was being run from a zip file where it's incapable of making backups.

[Gary R]

Not only are these idiots suggesting that people analyse their own HJT logs, but they're compounding the issue by suggesting they clear their system restore points as well, does their stupidity know no bounds.

It's worthy of the guys at Symantec.

[AndyAtHull]

Interesting. I would like to know who the author is.

[Maik]

Probably the same guy who answered:

Hi Maik,

Thank you for the suggestion. We really appreciate your thoughtful
feedback, and we'll keep it in mind as we work to improve Google.

Regards,
The Google Team

I think that roughly translate as, “Here’s thruppence, kid, go buy yourself some sweets and get lost.â€