Peerless

When you build your own PC you are your own quality control manager and are completely aware of all the software and hardware that goes into your machine, which requires a certain amount of knowledge and time.

Unfortunately, most people do not have the knowledge and/or the time to to build their own PCs and so are at the mercy of the manufacturers (& computer store sales staff).

And lack of time is why I bought my PC and ended up having to clean off pre-installed spyware.

This "pre-installed spyware" does not show up in Control Panel's "Add or Remove Programs" or, as mentioned before, can be detected by Ad Aware or Spybot.

As for HJT detection, I'm not so sure, I believe, this spyware is possibly seen as either legitimate applications or part of the O/S.

The only way to know for sure if HJT will clean pre-installed spyware is by running it on a new store bought PC. But as said, people who buy PCs from stores do not have the knowledge or experience to run HJT or even realise that there is spyware on their machines.


UK Bob