F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Detection

F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Detection is a dedicated anti-rootkit utility designed to scan and identify malicious processes and programs from your computer.

For those unfamiliar with the term rootkit, it refers to a stealthy type of program that allows an attacker to access a computer with administrator privileges, where it can run all sorts of questionable processes that are kept hidden.

Usually, rootkits are granted access by exploiting a security vulnerability or via other methods such as social engineering or privilege escalation.

The damages that a rootkit can cause can be of significant importance, up to the point where a healing process might not be even possible (some rootkits are able to subvert several removal tools).

Considering these facts, assessing the existence of such a threat is essential. This can be achieved via third-party tools that aim to detect and remove this type of malware.

F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Detection is one candidate for the job, promising to work miracles at no cost. We dare state otherwise, considering the results of our tests.

First and foremost, we couldn’t test it on Windows 7 and 8 because of compatibility issues, although we had enabled the compatibility mode (and ran it with administrator privileges).

While testing it on XP (it did launch on XP), we couldn’t help but notice the slow speed of the scan, as compared to similar rootkit removals. It didn’t detect any threat, so we couldn’t actually assess its efficiency properly.

Nonetheless, it saves the scan log to your desktop, letting you know what it analyzed and when. This is one of the few upsides of the program, as the log may offer important information about hidden processes.

What we can state for sure is that F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Detection is no competition for any similar removal tool. Its lack of compatibility with modern operating systems, together with the fact that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while suggests that F-Secure BlackLight Rootkit Detection is not the best choice for an infected computer.