SpyHunter by Enigma Software is a program that was previously listed as a rogue product on the because of the company’s history of employing aggressive and deceptive advertising. It has since been delisted but AV-Test has not included SpyHunter in their comprehensive testing analysis that would reveal how SpyHunter compares to the best anti-spyware in terms of protection, repair and usability. The reason for this is that the publisher, Enigma Software, has not been cooperative in submitting SpyHunter for testing at AV-Test. In my opinion it is a dubious program which is not very effective compared to others with a proven track record and I would not trust all the detections provided by its scanning engine.
Further, I have read that some newer versions of SpyHunter apparently install it’s own “Compact OS” and uses Grub4Dos loader to execute on boot up. The user no longer sees the normal Windows boot menu but instead sees the GRUB menu. For some folks this has resulted in SpyHunter causing a continuous loop when attempting to boot and other issues.
When searching for new malware or malware removal assistance [and removal guides] on the Internet, it is not unusual to find numerous hits from untrustworthy and scam sites which misclassify detections or provide misleading information. This is deliberately done more as a scam to entice folks into buying an advertised fix or using a free removal tool. SpyHunter [SpyHunter-Installer.exe] is one of the most common “so-called” removal tools pushed by these sites.
Reproduced with the kind permission of quiteman7, MVP, Global Moderator @ BleepingComputer.com
WSCLiNT
AskWoody Lounger
Yes. There are plenty of both free and paid applications out there that are well known commodities. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to pay for a product that is barely on the radar of any reputable reviewer’s listing.
And for those of you that keep looking at webpage advertisements: What is the matter with you…STOP!
WSSudo
AskWoody Lounger
While the free MBAM has Rootkit capabilities, Norton also provide the free Norton Power Eraser which is saved into Downloads and run as a .exe
However, clicking on Scan on its face page auto runs it in Rootkit mode which can be quite aggressive and can take out legit programs, but clicking on Advanced Options and selecting System Scan will run a standard scan – there are other options for Cloud, Boot and PuP scans and is another free tool worth considering.
WSIan Margetts
AskWoody Lounger
Been a member for ages but this is my first post…I purchased SpyHunter 4 recently when I had a ‘baddie’ on my system. It did the job it was supposed to do and cleaned up the problem.
Since then I have read that SpyHunter is a scam.
What is the general opinion with this program?
ANSWER I had problems on several PCs, and Spyhunter 4 fixed them and then I too, read it was a scam. It is not a scam. People saying so are IMHO probably trying to reduce the number of people’s PCs protected by it !
Yes, it’s almost impossible to remove – there is an ‘AVG-look-alike’ company who DO have a lying piece of anti-malware that actually never catches malware, but looks like it’s searching, THAT one IS a scam. Not the REAL AVG company, but a similar-sounding one? The dodgy one comes up with a dialogue box split into 4 rectangles or something, it’s very convincing, but baloney.
Someone has said you don’t need to pay for antimalware. I have looked hard – all the NON-payment antimalware, fails to catch the sneaky crap that Spyhunter 4 gets. It’s just had a reasonably major upgrade, too, and the support is second-to-none – posted a message, they were back in hours. They are on top of it – good company, my advice, use it and be glad it’s only tenners every 6 months. I would avoid it if possible, but everything else does not work – AVG, and others, free versions don’t fix what this fixes.
It’s a real minefield. I trust Windows defender, and Windows security suite or whatever, from Microsoft [er, considering they got us into this malware mess in the first place], and the REAL german-based AVG company [not that their product catches the advertising cookies that SH4 does]. I also have one on my daughter’s laptop called – let me get this right, because their is an impersonator one doing the rounds – Speedy PC Pro.
Speedy PC Pro, the dialogue box says it is Gold accredited Microsoft partner, and the ‘PC’ is in a little red-filled circle. The similar one is malware. It does not identically work as SH4 does, it does more like registry repair which is why I got it AS WELL as SH4? These are the only 4 companies/products I trust.
You could use SH4’s registry-fixer, I just didn’t think it worked as well as ‘Speedy PC Pro’. Be VERY careful with these names if doing a search – the real Speedy PC Pro, has a little menu ‘Overview/system scan/restore/tools/maintenance’ menu list of icons down the left side, and has that gold microsoft accreditation in small letters at the top.
TRUST is a real problem – as I say, the scammers undoubtedly put out propaganda, in particular slagging SH4 off, and yes, SH4 is hard to uninstall – but that’s the nature of a program that hacker people are trying to neutralise from snooping their malware out.
I should do a little YOutube piece on this, it’s so hard to trust any source. My youtube is sleekitwan, IT used to be my business, but now I have a family with ipad, iphone, Pcs, WIFI etc – I know a lot more about it! So, you can verify me at least – my ‘toob’ pieces are very little to do with IT, a hacker’s would be.
best ian/sleekitwan, West Yorkshire.
Paul T
AskWoody MVP
Coochin
AskWoody_MVP
WSsleekitwan
AskWoody Lounger
Don’t waste your time…or ours.
A firm response.
If spyhunter is bogus, when I put it on a laptop used by a teenager and it found 1000 or more items to remove after a year, and upon removal, the laptop no longer ran at a crawl but properly, we are short of a reason why that would happen.
Mcafee, well known. Failed to protect two of my computers from viruses/malware. One took a picture of our daughter sitting in bed tapping on the laptop, and demanded a ransom. I googled it on forums like these and manually managed to delete it.
The other PC was running slow, then I had to repeatedly reboot, said rebooting took longer and eventually it just sat with a bilnking cursor.
I accept that you believe your opinion is correct. I think it is fair that you accept that I have found that no freeware including malwarebytes and others mentioned here, protects against hundreds of items of malware picked up on a weekly basis.
Spyhunter is difficult to remove others have said, and others too, that Enigma software have tried to repeatedly take money out of their account despite them trying to quit usage of the software, and that Enigma bury this subscription in the small print.
BUT Talk Talk, the massive telecoms company, when in dispute with me over terrible technical problems they caused by not fully disclosing system requirements before purchase, ILLEGALLY requested TWO payments from my bank, by saying both times within hours, this was a STARTUP of a Direct Debit approved by the account holder ie me ! Obvs, it wasn’t as I was in a dispute over money.
AND Mcafee, another well-known brand, did exactly all that hard-to deal with approach, and refused to cancel my subscription after their product failed to protect my pc. They took about a year and multiple contacts to accede. It was on a credit card, and so ONLY they could cancel payments.
I accept you are on this forum a lot, and probably think you know a lot. But you didn’t lose hundreds of photos of your kids when Macafee failed to deliver protection, and you didn’t have them refuse to stop subs when requested, and you didn’t have talktalk illegally take nearly 100 pounds GB by lying to the bank about having my authority – to this day they have provided no evidence of having that authority.
So what exactly, I am saying, have Enigma software done, that is NOT the ‘going rate’ in my experience of PC security and broadband provision?
How DO we know what to trust? Needs solving. .
WSeikelein
AskWoody Lounger
Enigma Software is dragging Bleepingcomputer.com into a court battle; in my [as of 2016] only 34 years of PC experience BC.com has been since 2004 one of the very best sites for info and help on virus issues.
That lawsuit alone should disqualify everything from Enigma, no matter what E’s shills say.
I am always amazed how someone can say I ran xyz and my computer is fine now; how can they possibly know except by running at least two unrelated additional clean-up tools of unquestionably excellent reputation while xyz is still installed? But then, I know beyond a shadow of doubt that man can believe literally ANYthing…
Disclosure: I have absolutely no connection with either Enigma or Bleepingcomputer.com except that I sometimes use two free utilities downloaded from BC.com.