MJ Registry Watcher Alternatives

It has very low resource usage, and is set to poll every 10 seconds by default, although you can adjust this to anywhere between 0 and 600. A configuration file stores all your settings for future use. MJRW not only polls the registry, but it also hooks it, so that most changes to keys are undone and reported instantaneously. Key deletions are still caught by the polling loop though, since they cannot be hooked. Exactly which keys and files are protected can be completely configured by the user, although the sets I supply with MJRW will cover most standard PCs.

To install it, extract the files with pathnames, and you'll have a self-contained .exe file with a small help text file, the keys and files lists, and a couple of exclusion files in the MJRegWatcher directory. Create a shortcut to C:\MJRegWatcher\RegWatcher.exe and launch it. Then, use the Options, Settings, Automatic Startup Options screen to install it either just for the current user, or for all users. From this screen, you can also choose which key set to start it up with, or even uninstall it.

If a trojan attempts to change your startup settings, you will be alerted, and you can prevent any changes being made. It is fully configurable as to what keys and files are monitored, so, if you have a vested interest in protecting your file association for the mailto protocol (your default emailer), so that your preferred app loads them, and something else is trying very hard to undermine this association (Outlook for example), this will popup, offering to stop a new association attempt, after Outlook had loaded, say. The key that stores this association is hkey_lmus\software\classes\mailto\shell\open\command, and you could protect other associations by changing "mailto" to the desired type, for example, "jpegfile".

It assumes write access and directory create rights for the path the .exe file sits in (ie. wherever you installed it). The default set of keys and files should ensure that nothing gets run at startup without you knowing about it, and important boot up files don't get changed behind your back. When monitoring, keys are opened in Read-Only mode, and the application only needs Write Registry access when it has detected a change. It keeps a log of any suspect activity, and displays any such information for the current session in the bottom panel. A log file has this appended to it and can be viewed by pressing the Log button. The file keeps a complete history of alerts. Read more.