There were many cases where different antivirus software such as Avast, or Norton alerted users that they came across a potential threat and blocked it for good. Now there can be two cases; either the executable is legit or it is malware posing to be the executable in your system. The likelihood of the second case is extremely rare. Unlike many other executables which we covered in our earlier articles; this one does not consume any resources (CPU or Memory) in any way. If you find the process consuming your resources, there is a possibility that it belongs to the second case. Let’s summarize the facts about hxtsr.exe:
The executable is not a spyware.It is not considered a virus or Trojan.It is also not considered as adware or popup related application.Hxtsr is part of the Microsoft Office package and can be terminated at the user’s will.It is strongly advised that you do not remove the item unless you are absolutely sure it is a virus/malware.
How should I know if hxtst.exe is not a virus?
If your antivirus software is prompting you that a target executable is a virus or Trojan, it can be really hard to determine if it is true or not. We refer to these antiviruses for determining the files which are harmful but if they themselves are warning us in return, it becomes pretty confusing. The file path of the executable should be: You should check if this indeed is the case. Because of the uncertainty that may still arise, we will resort to running the Microsoft Safety Scanner on your computer. Microsoft Safety Scanner is a scan tool designed to find and remove malware from your computer. Do note that this software is not a substitute for your regular antivirus but it does provide you with the latest virus definitions out there and may guide us in this case. It also only runs when it is triggered. Furthermore, we recommend that you only use this software by downloading the latest version as virus definitions are updated frequently. If the process is labeled as a threat by the scan, it can be said that it indeed is malware and should be removed from your computer. If it doesn’t, you can ignore it and let be in its location. You can quarantine the executable so it doesn’t show up in your future scans.
What is agent.exe and Should I Delete it?What Is kdbsync.exe and Should I Delete It?What is consent.exe and should I delete it?What is: tv_w32.exe and should I delete it?
