What is it?
MS Hardware Abstraction Layer - hal.dll

What does it do?
Short for hardware abstraction layer, programming in an operating system that functions as an interface between a system’s hardware and software, providing a consistent hardware platform on which to run applications. When a HAL is employed, applications do not access hardware directly but access the abstract layer provided by the HAL. Like APIs, HALs allow applications to be device-independent because they abstract information from such systems as caches, I/O buses and interrupts and use this data to give the software a way to interact with the specific requirements of the hardware on which it is running. Source:

Virus Precautions:
You'll want to keep an eye on this google search for any known viruses. The normal location of this file is C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll If its not running in that location you'll want to reference some virus DBs and/or scan for viruses.


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