Rootkits are softwares that are designed to hide files, registry entries or processes. It can be used to hide viruses, spy wares, Trojans and other malicious code. It usually hides them from anti virus softwares and users thus making them more dangerous. As a result, users could be unaware that their computers could be sending out spams, launching attacks against other computers or even harboring Trojans used to steal confidential data.
However, there are some good free programs which can detect and remove rootkits easily. One of these programs is
Panda Anti-Rootkit at http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/antirootkit/ You can also use rootkit revealer from
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/RootkitRevealer.mspx
