Exefile.exe

Proceed with caution if you find the file Exefile.exe on your computer. Exefile.exe may be a file belonging to a legitimate software installation, or Exefile.exe may be evidence of a fake security program that has infected your computer.

The Difference Between the Good Exefile.exe and the Bad Exefile.exe

There is a file out there called Exefile.exe that is not malicious, and Exefile.exe is one of the files associated with the game EVE Online. Although this file called Exefile.exe may occasionally cause problems or even cause the system Exefile.exe is installed on to crash, Exefile.exe is not malware. So if you play EVE Online and you have found Exefile.exe on your computer, chances are it's the only instance of Exefile.exe, and you don't need to worry about it. You can be sure that your version of Exefile.exe is legitimate if Exefile.exe is located in the Program Files subfolder of your hard drive.

Just as you can identify the real, non-malware Exefile.exe by verifying Exefile.exe's location, you can identify the malicious Exefile.exe by checking to find out the file's location on your computer. The malware Exefile.exe is always installed within the Windows subfolder of the C: drive. The reason for this is that the malicious Exefile.exe was created with the intention of changing some system settings and tampering with the normal functioning of the infected PC – so, Exefile.exe puts itself in the folders normally dedicated to the Windows operating system.

Exefile.exe Technical Details

Exefile.exe is one of the files associated with the rogue security programs Internet Security 2011, Antivirus 2010, and possibly also Antivirus 2009. Specifically, Exefile.exe is the resource portion of these threats; in other words, Exefile.exe is the file-dropper Trojan that begins the infection process. Exefile.exe is known to be installed via extremely aggressive drive-by downloads that look for multiple vulnerabilities in the victim PC and attack all of these weak points, one by one, until Exefile.exe can be pushed onto the attacked computer. Exefile.exe may also be secretly bundled in freeware downloads or fake security program updates. Once Exefile.exe is on the host computer, Exefile.exe unpacks the executable files and .dll files associated with the rogue security application that Exefile.exe supports, and it makes changes to the registry that goes into effect the next time Windows starts.

It is important to note that not every instance of something called "exefile.exe" on a Windows computer is the result of malware. On the contrary, in order for Windows to work properly and to run .exe files (applications), the registry must contain a key that includes "exefile.exe" in order to tell Windows to use Explorer to open applications. Of course, in the registry, you can use an "exefile.exe" key in order to screw up program associations intentionally, so that – for example – every time someone tries to open Internet Explorer, Outlook opens instead. That still doesn't mean that every time you see "exefile.exe" on your computer, you should jump to conclusions and delete the file or registry key, because doing so could seriously disable your computer.