Hitman Pro (?)

I had a PC yesterday to "clean" that had a lot of spyware and malware, including Smartshopper and several "PC repair" malware infections. I ran my trusty Malwarebytes Pro and it cleaned a lot of junk out of the computer but didn't do a thing for smart shopper and several other malwares such as the "PC repair" apps.

I did some searching and came up with one thread that included Hitman Pro to clean out things missed by other malware programs. I ran Hitman Pro and it found the Smartshopper and the PC repair type malware and cleaned them all.

I'm not promoting Hitman Pro, basically I want some info on it. This was my first use of it.

There's some explanation of what the free version is capable of here:

Pros and Cons of MBAM/HMP/EEK/CCE | MalwareTips.com

Personally I've only ever used it on rare occasions after removing tricky to remove toolbars like Conduit. HMP will detect leftovers that are missed by other scanners but manual removal is required if you don't want to purchase a license. The free version has a 30 day license only.

The best feature is the scan for malware remnants. It scans the registry and finds and removes stuff that some other scanners miss.

I usually use D7 to run it:



As usual it's down to user choice to decide on false positive detections:



You might also be interested in HitManPro Alert:

HitmanPro.Alert 2 - SurfRight

HitmanPro.Alert CryptoGuard - SurfRight - video shows usage.

It installs as a service and watches browsers. Currently works for me using IE11, Cyberfox 64bit (installed), Opera 64bit portable, SlimBoat portable.

Hitman Pro is a multiscanning tool and uses several AV engines while most other tools use only one. When I start HMP it says: in-cloud technology partners: Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab.
According to HitmanPro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it also uses Dr Web, Emisoft, G-data and Ikarus.

The other major difference from other tools is that it's not free if you want it to clean infections. But if any infections are found you're offered a free trial license.

I use HMP myself to verify that I'm clean. I'm a cautious user so I never expect it to find anything which means I don't need a license. I try to avoid using software that might be a false-positive. If there's any doubt then I don't use it.

Thanks for the info. I try to avoid the crap sites and so far Malwarebytes and MSE have kept me clean. But, I occasionally get a PC to work on that is infected with malware/spyware. In the past I've been able to clean them with just Malwarebytes, but the infected PC that was brought to me yesterday, had more than Malwarebytes could detect. Fortunately I found the reference to Hitman Pro to remove one of the malware programs that the client had, and it did the job on the one I specifically was looking for and others, including toolbars, that Malwarebytes didn't touch.

I tried uninstalling what I found. Some were toolbars and uninstalled and some toolbars would not uninstall, either with the Windows uninstall or Revo Uninstaller. One, a "repair" program popped up a window about how many errors were on the PC when I tried to uninstall it.

I ran Malwarebytes after not being able to uninstall some of the garbage. I had to first run in Safe Mode with Malwarebytes. After getting it somewhat cleaned in Safe Mode, I booted into regular Windows and ran Malwarebytes again. Still had some left after that. Searching for info on one of the apps that would not uninstall I came across the reference to Hitman Pro.

Most of the problems were related to a particular date and after talking to the owner, his granddaughter used the PC that day. Several unwanted programs and Chrome was installed and a lot of the toolbars were Chrome installed.

The better thing, with this particular PC, which has Vista on it and has never been reinstalled, would have been a clean install but I wanted to avoid that.

Honestly, I can't remember. I'm so cautious that I haven't had a single infection, PUP, unwanted toolbar or anything in many years. I always check downloaded programs on VirusTotal/Herdprotect/WOT before running or installing them. If it's a browser plugin/add-on for example I download the install file first and scan it.
I mainly use Firefox with NoScript, Ghostery, WOT and ask-to-activate plugins. But to be extra sure I use Sandboxie too.

I do remember the last time I was infected, a nasty one on my work computer. My company had recently switched from F-Secure to McAfee to save some bucks I think it cost more in the end cause suddenly lots of colleagues started to get infected. This was when MSN Messenger was a popular chat tool. Some decided to reinstall, some had to replace the hard drive, I decided to try the cleaning method. Don't remember exactly but it required a lot of different AV tools to get totally clean. What one picked up, others missed and so on. I learned a lot from that mess.

Not exactly what you asked, sorry. But my experience at least. I use my own solution to check files on Virustotal and Herdprotect, the second Tutorial in my signature. But to make sure I get an updated result I sometimes go to Virustotal to upload and re-scan the file. I also do a manual scan with my AV and MBAM to get heuristics checked as well.

My bottom line: if you're cautious enough you shouldn't have to end up in a situation where you need to ask these questions. But hopefully others can give you a better answer.

I didn't have any infections on MY computer. It was a client's PC that was brought in to me to clean. I asked about Hitman Pro as I had never used it before and was wondering about it. Nothing else.