I used to use SUPERAntiSpyware as an on-demand scanner because it is good at removing malware and it didn’t cause any incompatibility with other installed software. The good compatibility resulted from setting its preferences to avoid loading on Windows startup and to avoid injecting Explorer shell menus. With such settings, there was only one entry in autoruns (under Winlogon) and nothing that remains RAM resident. Load autoruns here: Autoruns for Windows - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn
When I allowed SUPERAntiSpyware to update to v4.29.1002, I noticed it now has 7 entries in autoruns! Even after setting its preferences the same as before. I notice that autoruns v9.54 crashes sometimes after updating SAS. Autoruns v9.53 doesn’t crash with the latest SAS. You can get old versions of autoruns here:
With all the extra autoruns entries, the new SAS has the potential to cause compatibility problems and slow down the PC. I plan to uninstall it, but keep the installer around for its good removal capability (let Avira detect the malware since it has one of the highest publicly-documented detection rates). I didn’t complain to SAS because they make comments difficult, and I expect the standard corporate answers like “There are no compatibility problems” or “The compatibility problem is the fault of the other vendor”.
I still like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware as an on-demand scanner because it has no autoruns entries. Is there less of a need for SAS now that Microsoft Security Essentials is available?
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx