Application topics

[Treeed]

Have read/searched and became a forum participant in an attempt to find what the various AdwCleaner Basic Repair Actions mean/do and what needs to be selected. So far I have only found that Basic Repair is seldom needed. However, being curious, I am still interested in what actually is reset such as 'reset hosts files' etc. The current user manual is to brief in its explanations.

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings,

I don't know if you've seen it yet or not, but the ADWCleaner User Guide which can be found here provides the following details regarding the Additional Actions/Basic Repairs:

Additional Actions The cleaning process offers a set of basic repair actions. You can choose which repair actions to use here:

• Delete IFEO keys: Delete all IFEO subkeys.
• Delete tracing keys: Delete all Tracing keys.
• Delete Prefetch files: Delete all Prefetch files.
• Reset Proxy: Remove all proxies.
• Reset Chrome Policies: Delete all Google Chrome policies restore the default policies.
• Reset TCP/IP: Reset TCP/IP settings to default values.
• Reset Firewall: Reset the Windows firewall rules to default values.
• Reset IPSec: Reset IPSec settings.
• Reset BITS: Empty the Background Intelligent Transfer Service queue.
• Reset IE Policies: Delete all Internet Explorer policies and restore default the default policies.
• Reset Winsock: Reset Winsock settings to default values.
• Reset Hosts file: Restore the Hosts file to its default values.

It isn't too verbose, but it does provide some further detail about the entries.  Basically, each of these items is an area of the system known to be frequently altered by malware and PUPs/adware, most of which is to hijack internet/browser connectivity, usually for the purpose of redirecting them to the sites they are promoting and occasionally to prevent access to specific security software related sites where one might find tools to detect/remove their threats (such as Malwarebytes/ADWCleaner), and other areas are commonly used to block security apps from running such as the IFEO registry keys.  In fact, with the exception of IFEO, Tracing keys, Prefetch files, and BITS, all of these items are related to internet connectivity (BITS is used/required by Windows Update).

You can search for each of the items listed in bold above on Microsoft.com and you should find documentation, help topics as well as technical discussions on each item detailing what it is, what it does and what it is used for and likely some mention of how it may also be used by malware/PUPs etc. in many of the MS Technet forum discussions on the subject.

That said, as long as you are seeing no symptoms of redirects, inserted ad content, altered search results, blocked security software sites and/or security programs then you generally don't need to execute these settings.  That said, it can be a good idea to do so if your system is/was heavily infected with malware and/or PUPs/adware just to be safe, especially if you notice issues with the Windows Firewall, Windows Update or any of the other items I mentioned.  Of course we always offer free expert assistance with malware and PUP removal if needed anyway, so if you are not comfortable using any of these tools but suspect that your system may still be affected by the fallout/modification from one or more threats/PUPs that has been removed from your system or that there may be additional threats/PUPs that have not been detected/removed by Malwarebytes and/or ADWCleaner then you may read and follow the instructions in this topic and then create a new topic in the malware removal area by clicking here and one of our malware removal specialists will assist you in checking and clearing the system of any remaining threats and/or issues, including all of those areas that ADWCleaner offers to fix/reset in its repairs.

Anyway, I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we might assist you with please let us know.

Thanks

[Treeed]

Exile 360. Thank you very much for your detailed explanations. I'll copy this text and check MS Technet. I've used them a couple times and found that information handy. My system appears clean and my use of Malwarebytes over the past couple years has helped I am sure. I routinely use a couple of different cleaners/programs hoping if one misses something the other might catch it. I would really not like to thoroughly scrub these larger hard drives and then restore from a backup. Thank you for the, as always, exceptional support.

[exile360]

4 minutes ago, Treeed said:

My system appears clean and my use of Malwarebytes over the past couple years has helped I am sure. I routinely use a couple of different cleaners/programs hoping if one misses something the other might catch it. I would really not like to thoroughly scrub these larger hard drives and then restore from a backup.

It definitely sounds like you have the right idea for keeping your system clean

I'm glad I could help.  I didn't want to try and dive too deeply into any of the items listed just because, while I certainly have at least a basic understanding of most if not all of them, it wouldn't be nearly as thorough or complete as what MS had available.

You will likely also find the following resources to be helpful:

Malwarebytes Blog: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/

Malwarebytes Cybersecurity Basics: https://www.malwarebytes.com/cybersecurity/

Malwarebytes Labs Detections Online Database: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections

You can browse and search any of those resources and you should be able to find additional info on most of those items/topics, especially the ones that relate directly to detections/malicious abuse by the bad guys.  For example, here are a few items that should prove most informative on some of the fixes listed from the above resources at Malwarebytes Labs:

An Introduction to Image File Execution Options
Hijack.HostFile
Hosts file hijacks