UnHackMe 16.80.2024.1224

Overview

It’s common sense that nowadays you should always have your antivirus and firewall on at all times, since the chance of you getting hit by a virus attack is quite high- and grows exponentially if you start exploring darker areas of the web. This however, does not guarantee that nothing passes through this defensive line of yours; in fact, you should always keep an eye out for rootkits and other stealthy kinds of malware which always find a way in, making it quite hard to get rid of them afterwards. UnHackMe is a tool for removing rootkits that have attached to your system and are giving you a hard time, which has plenty of features; let’s get into detail.

Installation

The installation procedure is the same as in any typical program. Just launch the setup package, and follow the instructions in order to go through all of the steps and reach the main installation process, which will finish in only a few seconds and allow you to run the program right afterwards. There are no special settings throughout the steps apart from the installation directory and shortcut ones.

UnHackMe is completely free from all kinds of malware (viruses, Trojans, etc.) and installs no additional 3^rd-party advertised software either.

Supported operating systems are Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 (32/64-bit).

Interface

The program’s interface has a few graphics here and there, but the general layout is not very consistent, thus not very attractive. It could use some improvement in order to become more modern and better-looking.

At the top of the main window you can see 4 tabs: Check, Options, Register (or Registered if you have registered the product) and Logs. The main one as you can imagine is the first one, which has some general information about UnHackMe’s functionality on the left side, and 3 large buttons in the middle: Check Me Now!, Remote Assistant and Advanced. To start a scan, click on the first button.

Pros

Even though this program’s main purpose is to remove rootkits, the developer claims that it can also remove other kinds of malware as well, such as Trojans, viruses, adware, worms, etc.

UnHackMe can be set to scan at boot, a feature that is very crucial for software of this kind.

Since removing rootkits can become quite a complex procedure, the program can also create a log (similar to a Hijack-This log) that you can share with others and help you identifying and solve a problem.

Moreover, UnHackMe has an active protection module that scans your system in real-time and stops rootkits from getting into the system in the first place. And don’t worry about conflicts with other installed antivirus programs; it is compatible with many ones, such as AVG, AVAST, Symantec, Microsoft, McAfee, Malwarebytes, K7, F-Prot, WebRoot, Norman, TrendMicro, Kaspersky, BitDefender, Agnitum, Ad-Aware, Sophos, Comodo, DrWeb, Emsisoft, ESET-NOD32, Panda and others.

The duration of a scan (simple or comprehensive) is very small, lasting only a few minutes (I’m not sure if this should belong here or in the Cons section though).

Cons

Something that is awfully wrong with this program in my own humble opinion is that when a scan is over the program will let you know whether you are infected or not, but if you go to the “Review” section in order to see the results in detail, they don’t include only malicious or suspicious items but they also include good items as well. Of course, this is quite misleading, making the user think that he has dangerous software in his computer when in fact he doesn’t, which could also result into the deletion of completely clean items.

Also, the GUI could certainly be improved.

Alternatives

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (freemium) is one of the best tools for removing malicious software (such as rootkits, viruses, Trojans, adware, etc.) from your computer, if not the best. It is user friendly and has plenty of features (scan at boot, real-time system protection and website protection, etc.) but its internal scanning engine is just over the top, making it the best choice for all kinds of users who want to feel safe. Other alternatives include Spybot - Search & Destroy (paid), SUPERAntiSpyware (freemium), AdwCleaner (free) and Hitman Pro (freemium).

Conclusion

UnHackMe is a good tool for removing rootkits and other harmful items that typical antivirus programs cannot, but it’s not the ideal solution for an advanced user. Give it a try and let us know what you think.