HitmanPro 3.7

If you've got a malware infestation that interferes with installing regular antivirus protection, or ransomware that keeps you from booting Windows at all, it may be time to call in a hit man. HitmanPro 3.7 is specifically designed to clear out this kind of resistant malware, and its new Kickstart module foils malware that holds your computer for ransom.

Vendors frequently offer cleanup-only tools like HitmanPro for free. You don't have to pay to run a scan with HitmanPro, but if you want to remove malware found by the scan you'll have to pay for it ($19.95 per year for one license, $29.95 for three) or register for a 30-day free trial. On the plus side, you don't have to start that 30-day trial if the scan came up clean.

Easy Launch, Easy Scan
By default, the tiny HitmanPro executable installs a local copy on the PC you're scanning and sets it to scan at each reboot. However, you can also choose to just run a one-time scan without installing anything. In testing, I had no trouble installing this product on my twelve malware-infested test systems. That's refreshing, considering that getting some products installed has required hours of tech support intervention via phone and live chat.

Like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51, HitmanPro has a user interface that's focused on the singular task at hand. Most users will just launch it and immediately click Next to initiate the scan. Yes, there are a few configuration settings, but leaving them at their default values will ensure maximum security.

The time required for a scan depends strongly on the number of suspicious unknown files found, because HitmanPro uploads such files for cloud-based analysis. On my standard clean test system, a full scan took just four minutes and a repeat scan came in barely over a minute. The average for recent antivirus products is over 30 minutes, so HitmanPro is definitely fast!

Scanning the infested systems took longer, in some cases much longer. A couple of times I noticed in the scan results that the connection with the cloud had failed. I rescanned those systems to ensure the best result.

At the end of a scan, HitmanPro lists all the malware, suspicious files, and tracking cookies that it found. Its scan relies on technology from five antivirus companies: Dr. Web, IKARUS, G Data, Emsisoft, and Bitdefender. Clicking on any of the found items displays which of the antivirus engines detected it and what name each used to describe it.

Some list items will include little rectangular notes that the company calls "chevrons." For a running process, the chevron displays the process ID. HitmanPro use chevrons to flag drivers, files that launch at startup, and files protected by Windows File Protection, among other things.

Double-clicking an item in the results list brings up an extraordinarily detailed list of attributes noted by HitmanPro. The average user won't necessarily want to deal with this level of detail, but I found it fascinating.

The list also indicates HitmanPro's recommended action for each found item. I saw no need to change the defaults except in one particular case. On every test system HitmanPro identified the well-known security tool RootkitRevealer as a Trojan. It's not, so I chose the option to report this file as safe.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/-rDpHKkDTNM/0,2817,2413295,00.asp

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