BleepingComputer.com: Is SUPERAntiSpyware needed?

I personally think SUPERAntiSpyware is a bunch of rubbish because on my computer, it takes a billion years to scan!
But should I download it to remove tracking cookies? MalwareBytes doesn't get rid of them, so they'd stay there.

What is your opinion?

If it is taking so long to scan your PC, then haven't you already downloaded it?

FiOS Dan, on Mar 9 2009, 02:40 PM, said:

I uninstalled it.

SAS is a highly-regarded program. I would advise that you at least install the free version and run it once-a-week as an on-demand scanner.

It's scans don't take forever- just do a quick scan instead of a full scan. Full scans always take forever.

I’d keep it because it gives you another scan option

Even though a quick scan with it can take an hour or so for me, I still think it is worth using, especially since it found something on my system that Malwarebytes did not. I do not use it for the purpose of deleting tracking cookies. I do not have any program delete my tracking cookies, as it is easy enough to delete cookies manually and I prefer to manage my cookies myself, but I find it very valuable for finding and removing malware.

This post has been edited by Stang777: 09 March 2009 - 06:28 PM

Having multiple types of scanner options is good since one scanner may miss something that the other can possibly pick up. SAS and MBAM are some of the "frontline" tools in the AII forum, per se.

SAS generally would probably take a bit over 2 hours for me in Safe Mode. Not sure what normal mode takes as I don't really scan weekly when I should The only Normal Mode scan I do is with MBAM as it's recommended to scan in Normal Mode and only scan in Safe Mode when you can't in Normal.

And there are a few options to clear cookies. One of which is in the IE Tools options (of course, this is for IE6. I don't know if that would apply for IE7). Another option that I like to use sometimes is using ATF Cleaner. It's an on-demand cleaner that removes TEMP files, Cookies, and other things that I don't remember ATM. There's also CCleaner, supposedly, but I'm not sure on that one as I don't use it.

....shutting up.

If you have Revo Uninstaller or CCleaner both of these contain options for cleaning browsers and temp files, with my opinion CCleaner being better.

A full scan on my PC takes approx 1hr 15mins with SAS but it is the best of all the scanners in my view. I also use MBAM as a secondary scanner.
Something to also take into consideration regarding scanning in Windows XP. As well as cleaning out Temp files, history etc for each user is to reduce the amount of System Restore files being scanned. There is a good article on it here if you do a search. If I remember correctly you go to System>System Restore and check the "Turn Off System Restore" box then "Apply" and "OK" it after it finishes and it can take a short time and sometimes it hangs. You will need to reboot for changes to take effect and on reboot reopen the System Restore page change the default value to 3% uncheck the Turn Off box, Apply and Ok it. I would then recommend creating a new Restore Point at that point. This will limit your restore files and speed up scanning processes.

You can also just check the box in SAS to ignore the system restore folder, that way it won't scan it. I have also added a very large folder to the exclude list so it is not scanned by it and that helped speed it up too. It is a folder that I really doubt anything would be put into and is easy enough for me to check it to see if any of the dates have been changed. At times I scan just that folder by right clicking it and choosing to scan with SAS just to make sure. That one folder takes about 20 minutes to scan.

Nia(:, on Mar 9 2009, 02:23 PM, said:

As others have posted SUPERantispyware is a well regarded program which is often recommended and used successfully to remove Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers, Parasites, Rootkits, Rogue Security Products and many other types of threats. Run the scan overnight when you're asleep and the computer has nothing else to do. With regards to tracking cookies, I recommend using CCleaner Just stay away - far away from using the registry cleaner within CCleaner. CCleaner is a fast and very effective tool to remove temp files, cookies and online traces of your browsing history as well as to basically clean the crap off your computer. You'll be amazed to see what gets removed the first time you use it.

Nia(:, on Mar 9 2009, 02:23 PM, said:

I use MalwareBytes.

The speed of an anti-virus or anti-malware scan depends on a variety of factors.

• The program itself and how its scanning engine is designed to scan: using a signature database vs heuristic scanning for suspicious behavior or a combination of both.
  
• Options to scan for spyware, adware, riskware and potentially unwanted or unsafe programs (PUPs).
  
• Options to scan memory, boot sectors, registry and alternate data streams (ADS).
  
• Type of scan performed: Deep, Quick or Custom scanning.
  
• What action has to be performed when malware is detected.
  
• A computer's hard drive size.
  
• Disk used capacity (number of files to include temporary files) that have to be scanned.
  
• Types of files (.exe, .dll, .sys, .cab, archived, compressed, packed, email, etc) that are scanned.
  
• Whether external drives are included in the scan.
  
• Competition for and utilization of system resources by the scanner.
  
• Other running processes and programs in the background.
  
• Interference from malware.
  
• Interference from the user.

To speed up your scans, uninstall unnecessary programs, clean out the temporary files or use ATF Cleaner first, and then perform your scans in "Safe Mode".

Note: It is not unusal for an anti-virus or anti-malware scanner to be suspicious of some compressed, archived, .cab and packed files because they have difficulty reading what is inside them. These kind of files often trigger alerts by security software using heuristic detection because they are resistant to scanning (difficult to read). This resistance may also result in some scanners to stall (hang) on these particular types of files.

I am just about to try SAS now, but even having not used it yet, must say that I never understand the problem of it taking forever or slowing other programs down when doing the most complete scan available with ANY software.

We've reached the point where hard drives are huge, commonly installed programs are huge, and stored libraries of music, picture and video files are huge. It's going to take a while to do a thorough scan.

For people who always leave their system on, schedule what you can to run during the wee hours. Set up whatever calendar you use to remind you every couple weeks to manually run those programs which don't have built in scheduling every other Monday at bedtime or something.

For those who don't normally leave their system on, it won't kill you to do so once every couple weeks.

Then there's no need to worry about how long it takes, just view the results in the morning. And it's probably not a brilliant idea to be using a bunch of other programs in many cases while you're trying to run a scan anyway.