Rootkits use nasty tactics to hide malware such as viruses, worms, spyware, and adware from detection by anti-virus programs. If that’s not bad enough, they can be very difficult to locate and remove and you may never be completely sure you’ve completely removed them.

Nearly all rootkits “in the wild” are only for Windows XP and Vista, though there are few which also work on earlier versions of Windows.

Nowadays if you have been infected with spyware or malware it’s probable that there is a rootkit on your system as well. Some signs to watch for is if your computer starts running slower than it used to (even after rebooting), if you are seeing popup ads, or being redirected to other search sites.

To discover and remove a rootkit you’ll need special software to detect the rootkit and remove it. Some anti-rootkit programs are able to remove some rootkits and not others so you might want to try out a few if you suspect you are infected.

I’ve found that Panda’s Anti-Rootkit is the most affective anti-rootkit as it digs deeper than most other scanners and is more descriptive about what it finds. That helps insure you don’t delete files and processes that are legitimate and required by Windows.

F-Secure’s Blacklight was one of the first anti-rootkit programs but is much slower than the others. It doesn’t scan the Windows Registry so it can miss some rootkits or parts of them.

You could also try AVG Anti-Rootkit but it doesn’t detect as many rootkits as Panda’s as it doesn’t scan the Window’s Registry.

The least sophisticated of the bunch is Sophos Anti-Rootkit. It fails to remove many common rootkits and in some cases can report it has successfully removed them, when it hasn’t.

Don’t forget, your best off avoiding infection by not using Internet Explorer so you don’t get a rootkit in the first place.

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