RunScanner

Runscanner is a free, portable system utility that scans your PC for all running processes, programs, services, drivers, autostart locations, and hijack points. It can detect system changes made by viruses, malware, or operator error. Runscanner's powerful tools should be used with caution, but they can help you solve problems that ordinary means can't.

Runscanner offers two levels, Beginner and Expert. The Beginner mode has Scan and Update buttons and a link to Specialist help forums, plus three entry fields for saving scans as a log file or a binary .run file, which can be submitted to one of the online forums for expert analysis. Runscanner is clearly aimed at a more advanced "Beginner" than we typically encounter, since requiring users to join forums and submit scans of their system will simply be beyond the conception of many inexperienced users, and too much trouble for the "set-and-forget" crowd. But those users have other resources. The "advanced beginner" and others with good but not expert skills can use Runscanner's Beginner mode to get help when they're in over their heads.

You can't make any changes in Beginner mode, but you certainly can in Runscanner's Expert mode, and the program offers plenty of warnings about the dangers of using its system-changing utilities without full knowledge of what you're doing. It's entirely too easy to delete the wrong thing, and Runscanner's Restore original settings button may not be able to undo the changes. Take the Malware hunting tab, for instance: It displays all the running processes in your system, and it's up to you to know which entry is malware and which isn't. For example, we filtered the scan results to show only Unsigned files, yet all of the digitally unsigned files were for our mouse. Runscanner can also identify Startup items with no associated files. The Item Fixer tab helps you make repairs identified by experts. The Loaded Modules tab displayed all the .dlls in our system. Runscanner offers yet more under the Extra Stuff tab, such as a Process Killer, Host File editor, and list of installed software.