Just curious, is task manager fool proof? Can you always depend on it showing exactly whats running on your OS? Or can certain malware/viruses hide themselves? In my experience working on my customers machines the malware/virrses will always show in task manager (although ending the process is pointless) I feel windows does a good job of knowing what going on.
Any thoughts?
For the most part I agree with what you are saying. I too am a consultant and remove repair virii regularly for clients. But, virii are getting more sophisticated all the time.
I use the bank analogy... Banks used to have no bars, no alarms, no bullet proof glass, etc.. As criminals learned so did the banks... each time a new protection was put in place, the criminals come up with a way to circumnavigate that. Then the bank puts a new protection in place. The same is true for virus creators/programmers and AV companies.
Yes Win7 does a great job... but what if a virus hijacks a known executable how do you tell the legit from the illegit in Task Manager? <--- just thinking outloud!
You will not see a rootkit in Task Manager or any malware that installs itself or part of itself as a device driver. You need special software and some good help to identify and remove them, if they can be removed, not all can.
I think Virut was one that when yoiu got it, you had to do a clean install to get rid of it.
Replace Task Manager with Process Explorer and add the columns you need. Better choice.
Parabellum: Perhaps in the future you can be more clear and specific with your answers. I had no idea what you were talking about until I googled "Process Explorer"... and neither did anyone else probably!
Yes, it is a step above Task Manager, from MS Technet for free and released just a few weeks ago... Process Explorer
A really nice feature is that its a small exe file and can be run from a USB flash drive!
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