~BD~ wrote:

>. The file may be hijacked, for
>example, by adware, computer viruses, trojan horse software, and may be
>modified to redirect traffic from the intended destination to sites
>hosting content that may be offensive or intrusive to the user or the
>user’s computer system

That's why you need something resident to keep changes being made to
startup items and HOSTS file. I've used Winpatrol for many years for
this.