MJ Registry Watcher 1.2.8.2

A simple registry, file and directory poller

MJ Registry Watcher is a simple system tray application that monitors changes, startup registry keys, and any files you want alerting on.

To install MJ Registry Watcher, 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:MJRegWatcherRegWatcher.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.

MJ Registry Watcher 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".

MJ Registry Watcher 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.