reg 32? Privacy Outpost hijacker problem

[Suzanne]

I've got a homepage "hijacker" that I can't get rid of
using a few different spyware cleaners. It sends me to
Privacy Outpost, which claims they are not to blame and
directs me to download an "antidote" from their site OR I
could do it manually with regedit by deleting a listing
called "Reg32" under MS Windows.

I'm nervous about messing with my registry, especially
with directions from a site I already don't trust, and
Reg32 seems too much like it could be for 32-bit
processing something - I don't know? Does anyone know if
Reg32 is actually a real part of Windows, or should I
blow it away? thanks.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The correct way to start the Registry editor is REGEDIT.EXE Or REGEDT32.EXE REGEDT32 actually is just a stub that loads REGEDIT.EXE REG32 doesn't mean anything as far as Windows is concerned. Can you post the link where you found this information? Someone here can look at it, and tell you whether or not its safe.

The only instructions I could find on their site said to delete the HOSTS file, where found. Better to rename it, since this is a valid file, used by Windows, but by default, there's nothing in it but comments and samples of how to use the HOSTS file.