Xp pro registery changes

[Guest]

Hi

Is there some free utility which can be installed on Xp pro PC and then it
detects whenever any application tries to modify windows registery ?

I mean, I keep my system well protected having latest updates of firewalls
and latest spyware removal utilities, but even then somehow, some spyware
usually creeps in within hours of me being online. And worse thing is that
even the latest spyware products dont seem to remove these spywares. Then, I
usually have to search every possible place in registery and remove the
unwanted entries and then I have to search System32 and Windows directory for
new entries and remove from it as well.

But it usually takes hours for me to do that because going through windows
registery manually is a BIG pain. Can anybody suggest me somekind of
mechanism whereby I could be notified of change in registery made by any
application whether legitimate or not and it asks me for permission to modify
registery.

I hope, I make myself clear. I hope, somebody would have solution for this
already.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Hi

Is there some free utility which can be installed on Xp pro PC and then it
detects whenever any application tries to modify windows registery ?

Regmon from http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml can
monitor the registry. By default it monitors all registry access - reads,
writes, opens, etc. You will find that is way too much information. Look
at the options and set it to monitor only the activity you care about. For
example you might only care about logging successful writes to the
registry. You can also set filters to exclude processes or access to
registry pathes that you know are legit. Regmon won't prompt you whether
or not to allow the change, I'm not sure that's even possible, but it will
allow you to track what changes are made.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Kelly]

Other than Tom's excellent advice.....there should not be a need to go
through the measures you mention.

This combo, works well and in VERY rare cases, more is needed:

Run Ad-Aware SE, Spybot and HijackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html

Note: Update each program, once installed, before running.

Per your registry note, other than the above and/or, these are the only
areas needed for immediate attention/focus, if being handled manually.

1. Start/Run/Msconfig/Startup
2. Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

That said, you are needing to rely on the given and accept the rest. You
may be on an overkill mission. )

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com