I'm sure you guys have all heard of Spyware Terminator since its addition to the Filehippo antispyware page... I scan with it occasionally because it's so freaking fast and seems to be pretty good. I'm just worried about potential security breaches, give its reputation.
What do you guys think?
I was leary of it, but since it's been de-listed on SpywareWarrior I had some months ago tried it out. I ended up removing it not out of fear of it's past reputation, instead I removed it because it couldn't detect my DSL connection to get updates. It did look interesting that it could use ClamWin Free Antivirus, but only if you'd let it download and install it itself.
I personally much prefer to use trusted anti-malware software that has a good safe track record and has never been listed as rogue such as; SUPERAntiSpyware Free, A-Squared Free, and AVG Anti-Spyware.
I've used it, in several versions, for over a year. It's safe. There has been extensive discussion on at least three forums concerning past history, including Wilders, Spywarewarrior, and SpywareTerminator forums.
Personally I'd recommend the smaller download without the toolbar/WSG, because I don't like toolbars, beyond the basic essentials. (Windows taskbars, browser settings, that sort of thing.)
The current version has had many problems reported with the Clam AV integration...I've had that in the past but don't use it now.
I do believe its realtime protection feature is a big step up from WindowsDefender, and the optional HIPS component is a useful layer of security. (Currently I have that disabled because I'm trying out the "Defense+ in Comodo version 3 firewall.)
I've found some of the toolkit items included in ST quite useful, for example the "analyze file" feature, and the abiility to create restore points. These can be found in other programs, however.
The scan speed is extremely fast, fast doesn't necessarily mean better, though, however since I've had it installed, none of my other scanners, which include the excellent offerings posted by Andavari, have found a thing.
A full scan takes about the "normal" amount of time.
If you go to any of the forums I've listed and search for the program, you'll probably get quite a good idea of its safety.
PS, Andavari, ST uses IE settings for updates etc. Maybe that's the reason you couldn't update?
I dont really like this program. I dont dislike it either but I have no need for real time spyware/hips stuff and I would rather use SAS/AVG AS if I was going to wait for a scan to run.
well i'm using this program and i'm not having problems at all. real time protection is great too however one major problem in this program is RAM usage it usually runs on 7k-15k(on my pc) when a scan is on progress.
7-15K? Luxury!
There are four tasklist processes during a scan; SpywareTerminator.exe, SpywareTerminatorshield.exe, crss.exe, and sp_rsser.exe. Together they go way higher than that on my PC, over 100k.
The developers are working on ways to lower the usage in the next version. Too many user reports of slowdowns. I have a gig of RAM, which is pretty normal, no significant slowdown.
well hopefully it will be lowered down. as of now the processes of ST on my pc is on 7-10k
Thanks for all of the replies, I just don't want to be recommending it to people when I shouldn't be .
Maybe Crawler will pull a fast one on us in the future .