What is vm_sti.exe? Is vm_sti.exe spyware or a virus?

How to fix vm_sti.exe related problems?
1. Run Security Task Manager to check your vm_sti process
2. Run SpeedUpMyPC to fix related speed issues
3. Run Spyware Doctor to remove persistent malware

Process name: BIGDOG or Still Image (STI) Driver or Vimicro

Product: BIGDOG or Still Image (STI) Driver

Company: BIGDOG or VM (www.vm.ibm.com) or Vimicro (www.vimicro.com)

File: vm_sti.exe


This process is part of a program called ""BigDog"", which is used to implement certain features in multimedia products from a company called ViMicro. It is most often encountered after the installation of drivers for certain webcams. It is difficult to obtain much more detail on this process, but as long as you have a webcam made by ViMicro, the process is safe, and should be left running to ensure full functionality.http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/vm_sti.exe.html 

If you want a detailed security rating about your vm_sti.exe (and all other running background processes) read the following user opinions, and download the free trial version of Security Task Manager.

Note: Any malware can be named anything - so you should check where the files of the running processes are located on your disk. If a "non-Microsoft" .exe file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, then there is a high risk for a virus, spyware, trojan or worm infection! Check it out!


Click to Run a Free Scan for vm_sti.exe speed issues.


Users Opinions

Average user rating of vm_sti.exe: 3.5 based on 110 votes. Read also the 99 reviews.

1788 users ask for this file. 43 users rated it as not dangerous. 12 users rated it as not so dangerous. 25 users rated it as neutral. 8 users rated it as little bit dangerous. 22 users rated it as dangerous. 7 users didn't rate it ("don't know").


All comments about vm_sti.exe:
rate1 It comes with sweex webcam driver. It shows up a window with picure taken from camer, when button on camera is pressed   Luka
rate0 Appears in software of a certain pc camera (Digivue)   John Nelson
rate5 When it runs..Ad-aware cant update.. Kazza wont run.. online virus scan wont run   Yaababby
rate1 A4Tech USB CamView Driver   kasamiko
rate4 after a 30 minuts takes 100% CPU and when ended by task manager another process takes a 100% CPU I has to restart   Assaf
rate3 It came from MICRO Innovations PC Camera. Every time I load the driver it goes to my \Program Files\Vimicro\VM302\Driver AutoInstall\Driver Files then create copy to \Windows directory. I just delete it and my camera still works.   Walter P Anderson Jr
rate2 This is a program to catch still images by the webcam   Alligatore
rate1 It's part of the driver for MICRO Innovations, PC Camera. All I do is delete it out of \Windows directory and my PC Camera still works and no more bothersome error. I do not have an idea why they copy it to the \Windows directory.   Walter P Anderson Jr
rate1 Webcam driver. I have not had a single problem with it.   Sean A. Turvey U.E.
rate5 seams to sit there and do nothing for 5-10 mins then uses as much processing power as it can. the other thing is i've never installed a webcam or tv card etc on this pc either, bit sus if u ask me   Norm
rate1 nothin unless hijacked - dumbass kazaa is where the spyware is COMING from...   IceStar
rate3 Ad blocker supplied with USB camera software  See also: Link   Graham Watson
rate2 it became installed with my lexcron webcam   D. Checkley
rate1 LG WebCam Driver (WebPro)   Hélio M Y Jr
rate1 Lifetech Webcam Driver   Hugo
rate1 Webcam driver   Peter
rate0 i have a vimicro cam made by sunny company china,every time i install the driver it allways says bigdog encountered a problem and needs to close,also if i disconnect this cam i have to re-install the driver all the time  
rate5 This file caused my computer to combust when CPU usage reached 86.5544%. Beware. New kind of malware - NY Times reports 23 homes have burned down as a result of this file. Comes from your cell phone.   fireguy
rate5 after abt 30 min it takes up 100% cpu resources and slows the system, cant play any games for too long as they slow down after playing for some time bcos this starts running   enigma
rate5 came on cd with my webcam. doesn´t do anything until 10 min after system start. then takes whol cpu power.   striky
rate5 it is installed in winnt and started in the startup. recently i switched isp and had to unblock some port to trouble shoot it. during testing of the e-mail system i found the my default e-mail was being marked by spam cops and was found to be sending spam. as it was my buisness account i switched defaults and the problem followed the default email. I too had purchased a chinese camera but norton internet security was blocking it. And who would name the start up bigdog for a friggin camera. I believe it is a mail bot from china.   marv
rate1 it is the most common webcam snapshot shell add on for Windows XP.   Purgatory
rate0 after a 30 minuts takes 100% CPU and when ended by task manager another process takes a 100% CPU I have to restart   shui niu
rate1 BenQ LCD attachable WebCam Driver   ShadowRam
rate0 philips webcam dreiver component   Alexey
rate3 Use a lot of CPU power, bad!   Martin
rate2 It doesn't seem to be dangerous. It doesn't seem to do anything, though my webcam is not working right.   maeve
rate3 It's a part of the labtec driver cam software  
rate1 Never Had any problems At All   Mark
rate3 Chinese webcam program, probably to capture pic. Not main driver-don't need. Can delete entry in registry: HKLM run   user0645
rate3 ViewSonic w2201 webcam - driver has issues. caused system cpu 99%. reboot to clear. happened again.   Craig
rate0 how to installed my lexcron webcam ......? coz my cd driver lost can u help me here  See also: Link   endy
rate3 For web cams with the "click" button on them, when you press the "click" button this little applet initiats the CAM grabber main software and grabs a frame. Totaly harmless but remove it if you like it just means your "CLICK" manual take a pic button will no longer work outside of the CAM's software   Foxabilo
rate5 exactly same as Assaf after a 30 minuts takes 100% CPU and when ended by task manager another process takes a 100% CPU I has to restart   shiva
rate1 Installed with Phillips Webcam. Can be disabled   Manu
rate5 10-30 minutes after PC starts up, this file takes 98-99% CPU. Whole system hangs then. Using task manager to stop it certainly stops it, then explorer.exe takes 99% CPU. It is a beatch to bring the system down and usually have to resort to big orange switch on side of machine ... well, it would be orange if I designed laptops. This file seems to have only appeared since last Saturday when, surprise of surprises, I installed webcam software from D-Link.   Thomo the Lost
rate2 Came on CD with my Vimicro webcam. My firewall (Symantec) was forever blocking it access to the internet, however when I tracked the IP address it was trying to access it was my local machine. But since I have switched to Zone Alarm I have had no problem with this file. I have no reason to believe it is any form of malware.   Boff
rate4 it makes my system slow,very slow TTATT many friends told me that:it is not virus,it just a webcam driver.it is not dangerous at all!! BUT-----It takes up 95~99% CPU usage AND it makes system run slowly   bella
rate1 crown prince webcam driver. lol   bchow
rate4 Make my cam not work   Scalpa
rate3 it's located in my windows folder, it has no use. it interferes when i play online games  
rate3 software for capturing images from webcam   saroj
rate3 Comes from a Chinese manufactured web cam   Matt
rate1 For a webcam. It has never displayed any kind of bad behaviour. The webcam's still picture function does not work without this file. It is not a mailbot from china, it is not a process hog, it is not a PC combuster. What did that to other people (if anyone's even did combust..) sounds like any other random virus.   Poul
rate5 after start up my computer runs like a piece of shit.. i have to close it down in quick time in the Processes tab in the task manager otherwise i cant do anything on my comp... my advice GET RID OF IT!!!   mr_adam67
rate1 its my webcam service.  
rate5 Came (in my case) with Sandberg NightCam driver - IN ADDITION to taking up 100% CPU capacity + inability to run online virus-scan (as described by others here) ALSO my firewall started blocking antivirus from updating; though when it looked like antivirus was updating there was really going some downloading on from some other server it's NOT supposed to update from. - BEWARE of this file!!!   R
rate5 Came with Web Cam driver from China. Hard usage my CPU and when I plugged the camera, my windows firewall turned off immediately !!! This should be potential malware.   JOBBOT
rate5 This file is a backdoor program and higly hidden! It may came any cd in LEGAL drivers or programs or sites..But when i unpack and see source code it contains some files for backdoring..   Fool
rate3 it is for camera software  See also: Link   munan
rate1 WebCam Driver Secure   Jimmy
rate1 Linked to webcam (Use msconfig to dispel ur doubts)   Harkamal
rate1 A4Tech USB CamView Driver   eneto
rate4 I don't have a camera installed or connected to my laptop, why is this file here?!! I can't stop it working or even change it's priority - doesn't seem right, but can't get rid of it. GRR.   Typewriter
rate1 webcam driver   Ozgur
rate1 Installed a chinese web cam, does not seem to do harm, connects no where on the net and uses only 3MB of memory.   Jo
rate5 webcam driver - There is an ARDAMAX part of code inside. Ardamax is a keylogger. It could be very dangerous. Delete it. It doesn't affect the bewvam functionnality  See also: Link   fred
rate3 BAD! not dangerous for security. uses all CPU. I tryed to find The registry entry user0645 mentioned, but unseccessfull.   LEVON
rate1 LG web cam usb   tucupi
rate2 Written by BULLDOG, mine also installed with a (cheap) Vimicro WebCam. Seems strange that it uses 2% of processing power even though the camera hasn't been connected to the PC for months... so what is the software actually processing? Reading the other opinions, it appears to be a badly written piece of code.   RedRocketRetro
rate1 Webcam driver for all kinds of webcams. Totally harmless. Get real guys, CPU's can run at 100% loading 24/7 365 days a year with no bad effects. No spyware here, Kazaa etc are your real worries   Digger
rate1 40KB, part of webcam driver software, harmless, others having trouble with it probably have a trojan using the same name   adam
rate1 chinese webcam drivers...no prolems   lemon
rate1 Came with my webcam   Sean
rate1 came with a usb webcam - just now it is turning up in a virus scan. since the 12-22 updates for Symantec AV   eastside
rate1 driver for vimicro webcam hav´nt had any problems  
rate1 Startup process: C:\WINDOWS\Vm_sti.exe Vimicro USB PC Camera. Seems to run even when the camera is not plugged in. Memory usage atm 60MB - seems stupid for something that doesn't do anything. But nonetheless it's safe.   Futaeko
rate4 Installed with Vimicro USB PC Camera; uninstall removes it. I had it for 3 months with no problems, then it suddenly took 100% CPU when I installed a system update (rendering other services (Antivirus, etc) useless. There's probably a bug in it that results in a "tight loop" under certain circumstances - dangerous when it fails, but otherwise works   Merak
rate5 exactly same as the others in 30 minutes takes 100% CPU and impossible to get to Task Manager it came with my viewsonic web cam.... GERRRRR!!   Kris
rate1 It's part of my web cam drivers, never had probs with it   User
rate4 came with digital microscope install disk  
rate1 chinese webcam driver   MC_schum
rate1 was installed with the driver for a VIMICRO USB webcam, launched at boot time from Registry. Seems safe to delete the file.   Anthony Maw
rate1 part of the drivers of the webcam.   Xan_Kriegor
rate1 Its VIMICRO pc camera   Cengiz
rate5 This file came also with my webcam software, but only started to work about a week after i installed the software. What i did is the following: open your windows map and use the search ability to look for VM_STI.exe, if the file is found then destroy it, reboot and it should be better now.   a guy
rate3 Apache Web Cam Driver  
rate2 Its not bad to my knowledge, just some very bad coding imo. Vmicro webcam ;)   Haydn
rate3 installed by D-Link USB webcam driver. if you are not using your webcam anymore you can remove it from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run   Federico
rate5 Runs for 50% of the CPU power and once terminated causes other programs to do the same hence system wide hang   Jedi
rate3 i get it from a webcam emulator ( still image) it uses 10% of my cpu and slows it down. i removed it , wait and see for consequences.   JustaLiriK
rate5 Used over 600 MB of my system RAM and the cam is not even plugged in. It is incredible crap, get a real Logitech webcam and stop screwing around with crappy drivers!   Shait
rate3 I deleted the file but my camera still works. Cheap chinese camera. The actual name was domino.exe   Crusader
rate3 Came with drivers for Philips SPC210NC webcam bought at Tescos  See also: Link   MrD
rate1 Installed a chinese web cam, does not seem to do harm, connects no where on the net and uses only 3,8MB of memory.   pedja
rate2 Web camera button driver (catch image)   FUNTOM
rate2 when I click button on vimicro webcam it activates amcap.exe (small window showing images from camera) only seems to use around 15% memory for a second then it sits quietly waiting for another click   Joe
rate1 Installed with a webcam. delete regkey HKLM\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Run\BigDogPath (value was "C:\WINDOWS\VM_STI.EXE Cammaestro 4.2GU build 1104.72" on my system)   jemore
rate2 It came with my sony ericsson mobile driver and keeps taking a large amount of my CPU Resources (10%-90%) I isn't Dangerous but it really slows down your computer.  
rate5 It caused BSOD to appear every time i loaded Vista. Also system was working pretty slow before i disabled it in msconfig.   Siggy
rate1 Came installed with my webcam driver from Genius webcam, ( Genius 310p ) or something like that, borrowed the webcam from my sister :   MJ
rate1 I have this on my pc after installing Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and ZoneAlarm Free. I don't know which of these two installed it, I uninstalled ZoneAlarm and "BIGDOG" is still there... I have running 3 combining security tools: -- "Avira AntiVir" (using signature-based protection), "PC Tools ThreatFire" (using real-time behavioral-based protection) and Defense+ (using a HIPS, Host Intrusion Prevention System) from "Comodo Firewall", and none of these three security layers alarmed me, so this must be harmless!   konterkariert
rate4 Process runs with high cpu rate, higher than msn, firefox etc. no prob to deactivate... normally a webcam-driver   PeterLustig
rate1 It's webcam driver install through window process. A little siege of memory, didn't cause any problem to my computer.   Slerby
rate5 it'll system slowly and a little fix at sidebar,if we install sidebar vista on windows XP   Jack
rate5 chines cam driver, when you system have idle status - it activated and use 100% system resource, only reset...   Leo
rate3 Got installed with a cheap web cam. Did no harm to my Win XP Pro. Totalvirus say clean   Sten
rate2 Have used it for six years, needing to update driver only once in that time - worked similar to what most commenters have stated, works with several camera makes or models, runs high cpu and slows comp, easily fixable if you stop it from running at startup - msconfig. If you dont have cd for a vimicro cam instead on just downloading the latest driver, it pays to search out the correct chipname, thats about all that Im aware of.   Jacqui
rate3 It comes after installation of Vimicro web cam driver.   mark

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