Because of recent updates to HijackThis, some of the information below is dated. You can now download HijackThis_sfx.exe that will unzip HijackThis.exe into your Program Files folder. Please see our tutorial How to post a HijackThis Log for complete instructions with screenshots. If you would also like a shortcut for HijackThis.exe on your Desktop, scroll to the bottom of this post for instructions.

If you have been instructed to download HijackThis .zip and having problems getting it set up/unzipped properly, read on.

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Many people have "winged it" when downloading HijackThis so that they can get a log posted. For reasons to be explained later, before anything is fixed with HijackThis, it needs to be put in it's own folder, preferably in the root folder of your Operating System's hard drive. The two most common mistakes are running HijackThis from a temporary folder OR from the users's desktop. Following is a step by step procedure for moving HT into a permanent folder in each of these situations, followed by how to make a shortcut to HijackThis so that it is easily accessable & doesn't get lost.

Downloading HijackThis into its own folder:

NOTE: This is the preferred method. If you have trouble, however, understanding how to browse to the folder you create to save HijackThis to, just save HT to your Desktop and see "If you have HijackThis.exe residing on your Desktop:" below.

Also, how to unzip instructions are for XP only. Users of other operating systems need to install an archiving utility such as WinZip. A short tutorial on using Winzip can be found here:

How to create and extract a ZIP File in Windows 95/98/2000

It is essential that HijackThis be unzipped.

If HijackThis.exe is run from the zip folder and items are fixed, the backups made that might be needed if something goes wrong will be deleted as soon as you log off or reboot.

First, create a folder for HijackThis in the root folder of your hard drive.
1. Click START>My Computer>right click Local Disk (usually (C:) for most people)>Explore.
2. Right click an open area in the main pane.
3. Select New>Folder.
4. Type in HJT & press Enter.

5. Now download HijackThis. HijackThis Direct Download. When given a choice of whether to Save or Open this file, choose Save. Save the file to the HJT folder you just made. If you don't know how to do this, just save it to your desktop and skip to the next set of instructions.
6. When the download is complete, click "Open Containing Folder".
7. Now you need to unzip HijackThis. This is easily done with XP.
A. Double click HijackThis.zip.
B. In the left hand column, click "Extract all Files". The Extraction Wizard will pop
up.
C. Click Next, then Browse.
D. Select the HJT folder you created, then OK. HijackThis is now in a proper permanent folder.

If you have saved HijackThis.zip to your desktop but haven't unzipped it:

1. Double click HijackThis.zip.
2. In the left hand column, click "Extract all Files". The Extraction Wizard will pop
up.
3. Click Next, then Browse.
4. Select Desktop>OK. Now proceed to the following set of instructions.

If you have HijackThis.exe residing on your Desktop:

1. Right click an empty area of your desktop.
2. Select New>Folder.
3. Type in HJT & press Enter
4. Right click HijackThis exe.
5. Select cut
6. Double click the HJT folder>right click an open space in the main pane & select paste.
7. Close the HJT folder.
8. Right click the HJT folder & select cut.
9. Click START>My Computer>right click Local Disk (usually (C:) for most people)>Explore.
10. Right click an open area and select paste.

NOTE: If you also have HijackThis.zip on your Desktop, you can either safely delete it or cut & paste it into the HJT folder.

To put a shortcut on your Desktop for HijackThis:

1. Navigate to your HJT folder and double click to open it.
2. Right click HijackThis.exe.
3. Select "Create Shortcut". An icon with an arrow in a box should now appear in the HJT folder's main pane.
4. Right click the shortcut icon.
5. Select "Send To">Desktop.

NOTE: These shortcut instructions are good for XP and its default Context (right-click) menu. The method may differ for other Operating Systems or a customized Context menu. If so, please post a similar method in Windows Tips and Tricks and this post will be revised and included in any future tutorial.

i know you probably arent suppose to post here, but your winzip link is a deadend. can you post a new one. i only trust downloads from this site and i just did a system recovery and need a zip program

Thanks for letting me know. I've updated both links regarding Winzip. BC has added a short tutorial on Winzip since this was originally written.

There is another general one on file compression here: Introduction to File compression and Archiving

Remember that XP does simple zipping and unzipping. But if you want something with more features there are some other freeware apps listed in our popular Freeware Replacements For Common Commercial Apps thread.

WinZip is actually shareware and tends to bug you in different ways once the trial period has expired. For this reason I use IZArc as it is completely free.

just for knowledge, a program called "extract now" can extract ANY archived files much easier than any other program i've used (IMO), and it's absolutely free. I use it regularly to unpack files, and like it a lot better than WinZip, WinRar, or WinAce. The only drawback is you CANNOT archive any files with it. Exclusively extracting.
And just one simple question, if i may. You say to download HJT into its own folder. Ok i download HijackThisInstall.exe to the specified folder, but when i double-click, it installs and a shortcut is placed on my desktop. Am i doing something wrong already? lol

No, that's fine. The newest version of HJT is in the form of an installer package to ensure that you don't run HJT from a temporary location.

As for your archiving tool, I use Alzip. It works with every compressed folder format I have come across so far, and it has archiving features