Topic: Your opinions please on some spyware software

[daveeb]

Happy new year chaps and chapesses 

i've decided to ditch spybot as it completely refuses to update on one of my pc's and is troublesome to update on the other. I noticed in computeractive this week they mention two products.  One is called SPYWARE DOCTOR 4, CA 0ffer a free download of this but as is often the case their server times out, tho' i'm sure i could find it elsewhere.  The other software they mention is called SPYWARE TERMINATOR which i have already downloaded but not installed. Anybody tried either of these (Simon are you there or has Cyberhawk taken over your machine yet  ).

[Simon]

I ditched Cyberhawk after the infamously embarrassing trial on here, Dave!    I currently use one of the security packages (Kaspersky), which includes spyware protection, but I also run Windows Defender, which is real time.  I did try Spyware Terminator, but it's a bit like a new firewall, and flashed up so many warnings, I lost patience, but I have seen it highly recommended, and probably, had I given it more time, it would have been fine.  Of course, the best about it is, it's free.  As an 'on demand' occasional scanner, I also have SuperAntiSpyware on board, which comes in 'Free' or 'Pro' flavours, the main difference being that the free version doesn't offer real time protection (but Windows Defender does, and is also free, so you could have both).

Hope that helps a bit. 

[TR]

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[Clive]

Stay clear of Spyware Doctor as it finds lots of false positives and it will then want payment to remove them.  Spywareblaster and SuperAntiSpyware and both very good and easy to use.  Why don't you uninstall Spybot and start over again?  I had a similar problem with it refusing to update on Mrs Clive's machine but a reinstall sorted it.

[daveeb]

Thanks guys i think i'll leave spyware doctor alone.  I did try uninstalling the latest spybot completely in safe mode then reinstalling, still problems. I already have spyware blaster, spyware guard and the latest adaware so i'm probably ok without it 

[Simon]

SpywareBlaster is OK, but it doesn't update very frequently, whereas some of the others mentioned update daily.  Just something to bear in mind.

[Lona]

I have avg antispyware free software. 

The only problem I have with it is it keeps loading at startup and scanning pc.  I have tried unticking it on msconfig but it still manages to restart itself at bootup. 

It's a really good product and has found things other spyware software didn't find. I just wish I could get it to stop loading itself at startup.

[Rodders]

Although, ultimately, SpywareBlaster shares the same objective as other anti spyware s/w, it has a slightly different function, in as much as it prevents many 'drive-by' installations from occurring in the first place.  It's very highly regarded in the security community and should be included in everyone's panoply of system armour.  You simply update it, run it, then close the program.  No overheads.

It's free, and you can choose to either ignore it or install it, but it you'll avoid many more problems when it's installed.

[Rodders]

You could do worse than download 30 days worth of the Trend Micro Anti-Spyware application, too.  It's not free after the trial period, but will get you out of a hole temporarily if you're in trouble.

[Simon]

I have avg antispyware free software. 

The only problem I have with it is it keeps loading at startup and scanning pc.  I have tried unticking it on msconfig but it still manages to restart itself at bootup. 

It's a really good product and has found things other spyware software didn't find. I just wish I could get it to stop loading itself at startup.

I tried that for a while, and also found it quite good, but it never actually found any spyware on my PC - perhaps just because all my other prevention measures had done their job.  However, I never had the problem of it starting with Windows when uninvited, and I believe there's an option within the program settings to disable this, Lona.

[gmax]

The 2 programs that always rate well are "Spy Sweeper" and "CounterSpy", i'm
using "CounterSpy" i find it a lot better than the free programs like "spybot"

 http://anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/spy-sweeper-review.html