The mstinit.exe process is an executable file classified as a variant of the Mal/Horst program, according to some user reports. The Mal/Horst application is a known malicious program that can implement Trojan and spyware-like activities into the infected system. According to some users, the mstinit.exe process enters keys and creates entries in the Windows System Registry, in order for the system to allow the mstinit.exe process to activate during system startup and operate in the background during system runtime. The mstinit.exe process has been reported to be capable of searching for backdoor system vulnerabilities that it can exploit by opening available Internet network ports of the infected system and initiate contact with predesignated Web servers that can upload other malicious applications unto the compromised system. These exploited Internet network ports, according to a few users, can also be used by the authors of the mstinit.exe process to remotely access the resources and components of the infected system. The malicious programs that the predesignated Web servers contacted by the mstinit.exe process have been reported to be capable of gathering data stored in the infected system and Internet browsing information from the default Web browser, and these malicious applications then transmit these pieces of data to its author's Web servers.

Most non-system processes that are running can be stopped because they are not involved in running your operating system. mstinit.exe. is used by Mal/Horst, If you shut down mstinit.exe, it will likely start again at a later time either after you restart your computer or after an application start. To stop mstinit.exe, permanently you need to uninstall the application that runs this process which in this case is Mal/Horst, from your system.

After uninstalling applications it is a good idea to scan you Windows registry for any left over traces of applications. Registry Reviver by ReviverSoft is a great tool for doing this.

The ReviverSoft experts have not yet reviewed mstinit.exe

A process usually a part of an installed application such as Mal/Horst, or your operating system that is responsible for running in functions of that application. Some application require that they have processes running all the time so they can do things such as check for updates or notify you when you get an instant message. Some poorly written applications have many processes that run that may not be required and take up valuable processing power within your computer.

We have not received any complaint about this process having higher than normal impact on PC performance. If you have had bad experiences with it please let us know in a comment below and we will investigate it further.

The first thing you should do if mstinit.exe. is causing errors on your computer is to run a Windows registry scan with Registry Reviver If you are still seeing errors after this you should uninstall the program that mstinit.exe, belongs to, in this case Mal/Horst