BleepingComputer.com: HijackThis! (including the latest beta)

Something I noticed if you're using 64-bit Vista or Windows 7:

If you do a scan with HijackThis!, it misidentifies some very important system files/services as being missing, when they aren't, and if you delete the entries and reboot, you'll be running for that system restore disc. The Recovery Environment still doesn't handle these being deleted, as quite a few are critical and the recovery system won't operate properly.

Here's an example from my own system:

O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @dfsrres.dll,-101 (DFSR) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\DFSR.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: IviRegMgr - InterVideo - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\InterVideo\RegMgr\iviRegMgr.exe
O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Protected Storage (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Cyberlink RichVideo Service(CRVS) (RichVideo) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\Shared Files\RichVideo.exe
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\SLsvc.exe,-101 (slsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\SLsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Steam Client Service - Valve Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Steam\SteamService.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing)

HijackThis! still isn't programmed to properly handle the 32-bit and 64-bit system folders inside of C:\Windows, and deleting these entries is detrimental to the health of your OS.

This isn't mentioned in the HijackThis! tutorial either. I speak from experience of having deleted them once on a lark (I had a fresh backup image to restore from).