Rkill is a simple yet powerful tool used for protecting our computer from malware processes, slowing down, and effectively down our systems. This program which was developed by Bleepingcomputer.com was originally used in the guides for malware removal. The sole purpose of this program is to kill or shutdown the processes which are affected by malware or by themselves acting as malware. It does nothing more than killing the malware processes. Hence it should be borne in mind that this tool cannot be used as a standalone program for effective malware control.
Generally a good anti-malware or anti-virus program is designed in a manner such that it traces all the path of a malware and ensures that all traces of it are removed. For this the anti-malware program shuts processes, removes files, and also touches the registry entries for rectification. But this tool does only the first part of shutting the malware or malware affected process. Thereafter to ensure a complete clean up, we should follow up with a good anti-malware or anti-virus tool. The most important usage of this tool is that it is very effective in case the anti-malware tool itself is being affected and non-functional. In such cases, this tool first removes such processes and imports a new registry file which corrects the improper associations and finally fixes the policies that stop us from using the tools.
One of the major advantages of using this program is that it list down all the processes it brings down as a log. Hence the user is able to identify those applications or programs which are of concern for the security of the PC. This tool is designed for the sole purpose of avoiding the crashing down of the system due to malware attack. It is like a first line of defense. Hence it is always advised to use this tool in conjunction with a standard anti-virus tool for effectively securing the system.