PCMag review

[Rickster100]

Hello,

Just come across an article from Pc Mag via a posting at Broadband Reports Forum http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1993985,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000992. Anyone have any thoughts? Personally I think ewido 4.0 is an exceptional product and it would take more than one lacklustre review for me to consider changing.

Richie

[L Bainbridge]

Never been that impressed with PCmag's reviews- they always seem to favor products I and many others have found distinctly lacklustre over the years.
Never sure whether their reviews are truely 'impartial' if you know what I mean.
As regards Ewido 4 its a fantastic product and a quantum leap on from Ewido 3 (which was already pretty good).
I'm not sure its directly comparable with Spyware Doctor or Spysweeper as it also has far superior anti-trojan detection than either of those 2.
I use in combo with NOD32 and SpySweeper and it has caught a couple of minor nasties that were missed by SpySweeper.

[zapjb]

Stopped using Ewido some months ago, maybe over a year. Just like most realtime anti-trojain, as & malware. It would from time to time lock up my computer. And Ewido has further behavior that is also unacceptable to me. When run ondemand it has services running. That's BS & arrogant of Ewido.

But anyways I've found a solution for myself. But of course theres a sight imperfection. It has had a couple fp's. But they were easy to recognize & corrected the next update. But no system lockups.

[Rainwalker]

-{ Quote: "Hello,

Just come across an article from Pc Mag via a posting at Broadband Reports Forum http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1993985,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000992. Anyone have any thoughts? Personally I think ewido 4.0 is an exceptional product and it would take more than one lacklustre review for me to consider changing.

Richie" }-
Thanks for the info Rickster
:thumb:

[Rickster100]

-{ Quote: "Never been that impressed with PCmag's reviews- they always seem to favor products I and many others have found distinctly lacklustre over the years. Never sure whether their reviews are truely 'impartial' if you know what I mean." }-

Yes ive also heard that Pc Mags reviews can be a little "haphazard" at times, from experience its usually better to look at other reviews before making a decision or whether its good or bad. Im a big fan of Avast! and I remember there was a big forore on the Avast Forum about a review they did. Turned out that the "testing" they did was not as thorough or impartial as first thought...

I have always viewed Ewido as a TROJAN scanner to COMPLIMENT my existing spyware and antivirus apps. So I dont think it was too fair of them to compare it with the likes of Spyware Doctor etc which are didicated spyware apps. I wonder how Spysweeper would compare with Ewido in terms of Trojan dectection? ;D So you see i dont think this is a fair comparison of products which IMHO do different things.

But what I dont agree with is Ewido changing it from Anti-Malware to Anti-Spyware. That leads to misunderstandings of what Ewido actually does. To me it will always be an Anti-Trojan application.

Anyway, any other comments welcome here. ;)

Richie

[CloneRanger]

The software is called anti-spyware so i would have expected it to cover a large proportion of different threats which it missed in this review

I've pulled a few observations from the review to demonstrate some of the areas they found it weak and failing in

-{ Quote: "ewido anti-spyware 4.0 REVIEW DATE: 07.25.06

Grisoft's ewido anti-spyware 4.0 costs the same as programs that do a much better job. Some recommend using the scan-only free version as a second opinion, but it flopped in my tests.

Version 4.0 is the first post-acquisition release. But although it has a new user interface and a number of added features, I just can't recommend it while there are other apps that cost the same and do a much better job.

But then I subjected it to my usual torture testing, with abysmal results. It never requested a restart to complete spyware removal, but in a number of cases it blandly reported error while quarantining without suggesting any remedy. Grisoft admits the current product is not geared to handling keyloggers, and indeed, out of eight commercial keyloggers in my test set, ewido completely missed four and recognized but failed to remove three others. And while it does a dandy job of detecting spyware, recognizing 15 of my 16 spyware samples, it successfully removed just four of those. It left behind executable files and other significant traces of the rest. Some allegedly removed threats showed up as running processes in Task Manager. Others continued blithely popping up unwanted advertising windows, even after ewido had supposedly quarantined them. Not good! " }-

[nameless]

-{ Quote: "I dont think it was too fair of them to compare it with the likes of Spyware Doctor etc which are didicated spyware apps." }-The name is ewido anti-spyware, so it is perfectly fitting that it be directly compared to existing anti-spyware applications. The software should be judged by how it's marketed, not by how it's perceived to function by a user who has used it for a long time and who has learned what its weaknesses are. If ewido can't stand up against other anti-spyware software, they shouldn't bill it as they do.

Can you imagine it being otherwise? Imagine Neil Rubenking's review: "Ewido anti-spyware missed many of my spyware samples, but I still heartily recommend it, since it will always be an 'anti-trojan' in my heart of hearts."

I've always liked Neil Rubenking's work, and while I almost never completely trust any review, I do trust this one. I'm also very disappointed in ewido.

[JerryM]

While I consider Ewido an AT, if it is marketed as anti-spyware it is legitimate to test and compare it with dedicated AS applications, such as Spysweeper, SuperAntiSpyware, Counterspy, and Spyware Doctor.

I suspect that each of those would outperform Ewido as an anti-spyware. I admit disappointment at its failure in the area of keyloggers. Spyware Doctor and Spysweeper were much better, at least from a cursory reading of the tests results.

If I did not have Ewido I might not consider buying it after reading that test.

I would like to see how a-squared 2.0 would compare, and of course SuperAntiSpyware.

If one uses an AV like Kaspersky, I do not think an AT would add anything to real world security.

Jerry

[CJsDad]

Stopped using Ewido because I wanted to use it as an on demand scanner but task manager and Process Explorer always showed a service from Ewido running in the background.

[Rickster100]

-{ Quote: "
But what I dont agree with is Ewido changing it from Anti-Malware to Anti-Spyware. That leads to misunderstandings of what Ewido actually does. To me it will always be an Anti-Trojan application." }-

This is the first review I have seen which directly compares Ewido with other well known and respected spyware apps. Others are sure to follow over the next few months. Many users here will have purchased Ewido for its ANTI-TROJAN capabilities (like myself). In the past, when compared with other anti-trojan apps it has always performed well in other reviews. IMHO this indictates to me that Grisoft branding Ewido as "Anti-Spyware" (at this stage) is premature at best. NOTE: This is only my opinion.

-{ Quote: "
While I consider Ewido an AT, if it is marketed as anti-spyware it is legitimate to test and compare it with dedicated AS applications, such as Spysweeper, SuperAntiSpyware, Counterspy, and Spyware Doctor." }-

If Grisoft want to market Ewido as a good spyware app they may have to raise their game. If that is the case and this is what Grisoft are wanting to do then interesting times are ahead for fans of Ewido. They will have to work very hard to get people to change their views about Ewido being more than an just an Anti-Trojan app. Doing a web search on anti-trojan apps brings up Ewido along with other well known anti-trojan apps like BoClean, A Squared etc so they might have a lot of work to do to convince others of Ewidos AS capabilities in future.

-{ Quote: "The name is ewido anti-spyware, so it is perfectly fitting that it be directly compared to existing anti-spyware applications. The software should be judged by how it's marketed, not by how it's perceived to function by a user who has used it for a long time and who has learned what its weaknesses are. If ewido can't stand up against other anti-spyware software, they shouldn't bill it as they do." }-

We have all seen here on the forum that Grisoft have worked very hard to improve things from version 3.5 to 4.0. Now they may have to put more work into developing Ewido in terms of spyware detection and up against very established names such as Spysweeper, Counterspy, Spyware Doctor thats not going to be an easy task. You just have to look at the background of the 2 companies here to perhaps explain the "poor" results here. They have come from an anti-virus background (Grisoft) and anti-trojan background (Ewido). Anti-spyware detection is a new direction for this company so I guess they can only but improve on things AS in future releases.

Although this thread seems a little negative against Ewido I have nothing but great respect for the guys at Grisoft for all the work they have done over the least few months and their dedication to answer questions and resolve user issues here is second to none. I have been a very happy user of Ewido 3.5 and 4.0 for a long time now in terms of Anti-Trojan capabilities. The review at Pc Mag did raise a few eyebrows with me and I think this makes for an interesting debate hence my original posting. I am not forgetting that this is only ONE REVIEW so others may lean more fovourably towards Ewido in future. It would also be interesting to hear from the Ewido guys about this thread and see what their views about the Pc mag review are.

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. :)

Richie

[rdsu]

They change the program name, now they will suffer the consequences...

[GWA]

-{ Quote: "Stopped using Ewido because I wanted to use it as an on demand scanner but task manager and Process Explorer always showed a service from Ewido running in the background." }-

Since I'm not a moderator and can not break out this comment, I'll respond here. I simply went to Services, stopped the ewido anti-spyware (guard) service and changed it from Automatic to Manual. It no longer starts, but could easily be changed back to Automatic later.

[CJsDad]

-{ Quote: "Since I'm not a moderator and can not break out this comment, I'll respond here. I simply went to Services, stopped the ewido anti-spyware (guard) service and changed it from Automatic to Manual. It no longer starts, but could easily be changed back to Automatic later." }-


When I say I stopped using Ewido I'm talking about the 3.5 version.
I know how to stop the guard from running, nothing new, did it with their last version but why should I have to go through that in order to start it and shut it down every time I want to run a scan?
I used 4.0 for about a day on another PC, didn't see anything that was worth me keeping it on the other computer and removed it.
Doesn't matter anyway, with KAV and BOClean running on my computer I seriously doubt I need Ewido.

[zapjb]

I agree. It's somewhere from ineptitude through arrogance by Ewido/Grisoft. To have a process from Ewido running in the background when used as an on demand scanner.

[Edwin024]

SUPERAntiSpyware say they really destroy the baddies on your system when found. Ewido doersn't, that much is clear. At my PC they found no more than a few harmless cookies. SUPER is doing far better!

[Don Pelotas]

-{ Quote: "SUPERAntiSpyware say they really destroy the baddies on your system when found. Ewido doersn't, that much is clear. At my PC they found no more than a few harmless cookies. SUPER is doing far better!" }-
Edwin, how about you actually prove that blanket statement?

No one actually knows at this point if SUPERAntiSpyware is even close to being able to live up to their claims, it's one of many of these types of programs, most of them is mediocre & a waste of your pc's resources and SAS may turn out to be exactly that.................... i have the free version installed btw, i wouldn't even dream of buying it untill it has somehow shown itself to live up to the claims of detecting/removing the heavy stuff, so far it has only removed cookies on my pc, which of course proves as little as your statement does...........because my pc is clean and maybe yours is/was too, you can't exactly blame a program for not removing something...........that is not there in the first place. ;)

[JerryM]

I agree that it remains to be proven how good SAS really is.

I am impressed with the support and how well it runs on my systems. However, I am taking it on "faith" and support instead of independent test results.

I eagerly await test results. I'm not sure when we will see such.

Regards,
Jerry

[robinb]

I have used spyware doctor for 2 years and pc magazine rates it as the best sypware removal program. Well guess what! 3months ago it did a update and everything went haywire on my computer and on 4 of my clients computers. Wierd things started to happen- I lost sound on one computer, 2 clients of mine could not login to windows xp, one when trying to log off to his wife's account, the computer locked up so bad the only way to shut it down was to push the button. I removed spyware doctor and all problems went away. another major problem with spyware doctor is it takes Forever to load at startup. Everything loads and finally after 2min or so the icon pops on.
I emailed the company- no telephone support only email and they made every excuse in the book for this one but could not come up with a solution.
And here it is said that Spyware Doctor has the highest ratings. Sometimes companies that test these products have nothing on their computers but the Operating System and nothing else and have no idea what it is going to interfere with- duh!
So you cannot believe everything you read.
robin

[rdsu]

-{ Quote: "
So you cannot believe everything you read.
robin" }-
Like me...

Almost the reviews aren't completely well made, but since they changed the name to "AntiSpyware", now their program will be compared with others AntiSpyware programs.
The problem is that ewido is more an AntiMalware than an AntiSpyware, so it will loose almost comparisons with other programs on this area...

[strangequark]

Like others on this thread I purchased Ewido primarily as a trojan scanner after TDS went under, I also purchased Boclean shortly after. I will probably not be renewing my ewido licence as, in my opinion, Boclean does a much better job in this area. As for the spyware, malware or call it what you want ware, there are other free apps out there that do an excellent job. Another reason for my turn around is that, again in my opinion or experience, ewido has had a false positive rate a bit higher than I would like, nothing as bad as wasting time chasing those wild geese around. I will probably still use the free version as a back up mainly for it's on demand scan ability.

[aigle]

I don,t expect Ewido to be great in spyware detection as it,s new in this area and I still hope thay will improve. But I guess, for any product, if it fails to improve over a considerable period of time, it might not improve ober the rest of its life unless some major change happens in the company itself.
Let,s see how Ewido goes in the long run.

[WSFuser]

-{ Quote: "Stopped using Ewido because I wanted to use it as an on demand scanner but task manager and Process Explorer always showed a service from Ewido running in the background." }-
u can still run ewido (on-demand) with the service disabled. for version 4 anyways.

[aigle]

Is there a link for the whole comparative testing/ article by PC mag. I can,t find it.

[Edwin024]

Aigle: before Ewdio was named antimalware, the name was already Ewido Anti Spyware. With that in mind the test record is a breaker, isn't it.

Other threads here show too that Ewido just doesn't do the job either. And than Peter sends me a PM...pfuh.

[aigle]

i think it,s still early to decide.

[Don Pelotas]

-{ Quote: "Aigle: before Ewdio was named antimalware, the name was already Ewido Anti Spyware. With that in mind the test record is a breaker, isn't it.

Other threads here show too that Ewido just doesn't do the job either. And than Peter sends me a PM...pfuh." }-
1. No, actually it was called ewido security suite, then ewido anti-malware & finally ewido anti-spyware.

2. The only meaningfull test ewido has ever participated in, it was #1 in detection, it was btw the same test that Trojan Hunter pulled out of when they discovered they weren't among the best in it, after having said yes first to participate. Link: http://www.av-comparatives.org/, scrol down to "Anti-Trojan Comparative 2006".

[Edwin024]

You're right indeed about number 1. Sorry for the mistake.

About 2: I hope that Andreas will do a new survey with SUPERantispyware included somewhere in the hopefully near future :)

[sick0]

-{ Quote: "I know how to stop the guard from running, nothing new, did it with their last version but why should I have to go through that in order to start it and shut it down every time I want to run a scan?" }-

not anymore. if you have the free version of ewido 4, it will now run as a full on-demand only, ewido's process will automatically exit after you close the program.

this is only for ewido 4 free version, process dont terminate automatically while on trial period...

-{ Quote: "I agree. It's somewhere from ineptitude through arrogance by Ewido/Grisoft. To have a process from Ewido running in the background when used as an on demand scanner." }-

same as above...

[sosaiso]

This is going to be some bad PR, but most of us understand what Ewido is used for, and will continue to recommend it to people who need it.

That's how I feel about this sort of thing.

[Infinity]

still, Ewido didn't do what it has been saying and apparently what was planned to do with V4 ... whether it is doing better or not ... even the CEO told about HIPS

[azumi21]

For once I think Pc Mag's review was correct.
The 2/5 rating on V4 ewido "anti-spyware" was well deserved.

V4 coupled with the buyout by Grisoft really left a bad taste in my mouth ;P

[Perman]

Hi, folks: This blunder(facelift from antimalware to antispyware) has demonstrated that those who are in HIGH places can lose their common sense so quickly. If you put ducks(after make over; facelift,ID change) with chichen in a same cage, although both are poultry class, ducks still cracks like a duck, walks like a duck. And it takes only split second to downgrade the ducks. You just do not belong to here. If ewido wants to be an antispyware, there is a lot of rooms for improvement, and the road to glory could be very rocky. Good luck to you, Ewido.

[Legendkiller]

First of all i would say that i regularly visit their for reviews but i am not too sure like in case of Za Security Suite review,whether to trust their review of ewido??::) ::) ::)
I always believed that ewido was a good anti-spyware but i am amazed to see that it got only two from their editor???
Review:(Short)
Bottom-Line:
Grisoft's ewido anti-spyware 4.0 costs the same as programs that do a much better job. Some recommend using the scan-only free version as a second opinion, but it flopped in my tests.
Pros:
Scans inside archives, compressed executables, and alternate data streams. Includes analysis of running processes and browser plug-ins as well as Windows security settings. Secure file deletion.
Cons:
Failed to remove most threats it detected. Real-time protection limited to scanning memory and scanning files on execution. No protection against hijacks.
The full review can be availed at:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1991977,00.asp
I would like the knowledgable guys to comment on their review and send in your views on ewido...

[WSFuser]

theres already an ongoing thread if u care to join:

Ewido 4.0 Gets Poor Review (2 out of 5 stars) at PCMag... (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=141157)

someone pointed this out: PC Mag reviewed ewido as an antispyware due to its name.

thats why it did so poorly, ewido didnt start life as a dedicated antispyware. it focused on malware overall, particularly trojans. many people in this forum have known ewido as an antitrojan and thats where its strength lies. only time will tell if it improves at spyware detection/removal.

[Frank the Perv]

Consumers are so fickle. One day a star, the next, a has-been.

Ewido was so loved by the masses not long ago, with a loyalty kind of like the NOD32ians have toward their product.

Then….

1. Ewido sells lifetime memberships (as long as the life of you or the company..)
2. Then they sell the company (nice timing)
3. Then 4.0 seems to only have bells and whistles yet little substance beyond 3.5

I’m just kind of waiting for the final indignity -- for us who bought the ‘lifetime’ subscriptions to be told to take a hike.

The day they kick overboard the ‘lifetime subscribers’ is the day that Paul Wilders needs to kick them off this board.

Other than that, all is good. Ewido is possibly not as good as many thought it was, but probably not as bad as that review makes it out to be.

Ewido – in my belief – remains a valuable tool in the arsenal against cyber garbage.

[Ngwana]

Even if Ewido was given ALL the stars, some of the reviews these days must be taken with a pinch of salt. First it is the 'samples' they use, the results would be different if a different set of samples are used.

I think in a 'real life situation' Ewido can be very useful as part of layered security. Many users of Ewido have seen its true performance even though as already pointed out its still new as 'anti-spyware'. The idea of chasing most rewarded or most cheered products is not very helpful. :D

[QBgreen]

It's been my experience that advertisers on Ziff Davis sites tend to get a favorable review.

[sosaiso]

Truthfully, how many of us use Ewido to actually get rid of spyware? Maybe that's a bad question. How many of us actually get spyware?

I am still under the impression that we were using it to scan for the actual annoyances on the internet... I dunno....... things such as... um, TROJANS.

Spyware and Ad-ware are nothing but the end products of a trojan drop half the time. I'd rather have a product deal with these appropriately than have something like Spysweeper that gets rave reviews and does nothing.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: " like Spysweeper that gets rave reviews and does nothing." }-

What do u mean by doing nothing? It is an AS and really works good in this regard. What do u expect more from an AS?

[sosaiso]

It removes a many trouble makers, but does nothing if you have certain types of droppers.

Cleaned out a computer, and had the baddies redownloaded once I rebooted and reconnected to the net. Did not get rid of the cause. [trojan/rootkit combo.] Was just a test run back in the 3.5's. Things may have changed then. But the point being... spyware isn't the problem. Other pieces of malware are. [90% of the time.]

-{ Quote: "What do u expect more from an AS?" }-

Do you expect more from a product that is designed to be an Antitrojan?

True, rebranded now, but modifying code in two months is not easy. Other AS's have a first mover advantage in this regard. I just don't see what all the impatience is about. Liscense's are still being honored, trojans still being removed, and research still being put in. I, for one, will stick with this ondemand scanner.

[JerryM]

It has gotten to the point that I am unsure what type application "antis" what.

I would have thought that rootkits, and keyloggers would be detected/blocked by the anti-virus. If not then I thought the anti-trojan would, but in the tests under discussion the anti-spyware applications did the job, and Ewido did not. That is my major disappointment with Ewido.

If all it does is detect trojans, then KAV is better than Ewido at that.

In the past I did not consider an AS as detecting such, but they did in that test.

Have the anti-trojans been made obsolete by the best anti-spyware applications? There seems to be considerable overlap.

So what application is the primary detector of rootkits, and keyloggers?

Thanks,
Jerry

[Detox]

Since this wasn't much of an Ewido support issue (especially considering some software plugs etc that appeared) it has been moved to a more appropriate forum.

[Legendkiller]

first of all my apologies for double posting,and yes after pcmag gave Za Security Suite the coveted "Editor's Choice",i am beginning to doubt it...

[Detox]

-{ Quote: "first of all my apologies for double posting,and yes after pcmag gave Za Security Suite the coveted "Editor's Choice",i am beginning to doubt it..." }-

No problem - I've merged the two threads together since they are both now in the appropriate forum.

[sosaiso]

ZA isn't bad for what it does... A firewall, some HIPS protection... We have to admit it does a better job than say... Macfee Internet Suite.

As for Kaspersky doing a better job, in inactive maybe... But antiviruses don't have the ability to kill a trojan that's running as far as I know... Not the the extent that Antitrojans do at least.

[berng]

This review seems to corroborate what was found as stated in this thread
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=139768

[The Hammer]

-{ Quote: "ZA isn't bad for what it does... A firewall, some HIPS protection... We have to admit it does a better job than say... Macfee Internet Suit" }-Actually we don't have to admit any such thing. This is a subjective evaluation on your part.

[sosaiso]

true i stand corrected.

[Metting]

All of this story "I mean the bad record of ewido" because of one thing which is the changing of ewido's name from ewido antimalware to ewido antispyware >:(

Now every body mistakenly compares ewido to other anti-spyware progs like Spysweeper and spywaredoctor and for sure ewido has nothing to do with spyware.

ewido's power and effectivness come from it's wonderful capability of detecting and preventing trojans specially those embeded in runtime packers, i couldn't find a runtime packed trojan that ewido doesn't detect, while i can find a punch of all kinds of trojans that both spysweeper and spyware doctor missed silently and happily even there are basic trojans that anti-spyware progs missing easily.

Imagine that some review compare Boclean and Spysweeper in the field of spyware prevention, in this case if spysweeper got 10 degrees boclean will get 3 only and this is completely unfair. but to defend against trojans no one can depend on spysweeper or spyware doctor.

This PcMag's review is the price that Grisoft should pay for it's non-wise decision of changing ewido marketing name, it leaves anti-trojan market for it's competitors while having big difficulties in anti-spyware market competition.

Another big point that many know, which is PcMag reviews are not trustable among many power users, as it is enough to notice that they always give Norton crap thier reward of Best Choice and this is more than I can withstand to loose every drop of trust in PcMag's reviews.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "
This PcMag's review is the price that Grisoft should pay for it's non-wise decision of changing ewido marketing name, it leaves anti-trojan market for it's competitors while having big difficulties in anti-spyware market competition.
" }-

they were supposed to do it for marketing. U can guess that very few home users will buy a satndalone AT while many people will of course buy a standalone AS.

[Metting]

-{ Quote: "they were supposed to do it for marketing. U can guess that very few home users will buy a satndalone AT while many people will of course buy a standalone AS." }-

Now after this new marketing name even those very few home users who are looking for a standalone AT most probably will go with another AT which sells under a name realated to trojans or malware, While many people who are looking for AS either will go with another AS that do better in defending against spyware. Very logic and simple.

[Firefighter]

-{ Quote: "Hello,

Just come across an article from Pc Mag via a posting at Broadband Reports Forum http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1993985,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000992. Anyone have any thoughts? Personally I think ewido 4.0 is an exceptional product and it would take more than one lacklustre review for me to consider changing.

Richie" }-This is only one test. If you are looking at these tests

http://www.malware-test.com/antispyware.html

and combine those 3 last tests where ewido 4 was within together with these apps, so ewido wasn't so poor than Pc Mag was saying but the others were too. What we can do with sofwares, where even the best is unable to clean over 45 %?


Ninth Round (August 7, 2006): 127 entries

Cleanup Success Rate for Entry-based Viewpoint:

74.02% = 94 -- Trend Micro Anti-Spyware
58.27% = 74 -- Webroot Spy Sweeper
56.69% = 72 -- McAfee antispyware
53.54% = 68 -- Sunbelt CounterSpy
50.39% = 64 -- PC Tools Spyware Doctor
48.82% = 62 -- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
46.47% = 59 -- F-Secure Internet Security
43.31% = 55 -- ZoneAlarm Anti-spyware
40.16% = 51 -- Panda Platinum Internet Security
38.58% = 49 -- Microsoft Windows Defender
38.58% = 49 -- Norton Internet Security
37.80% = 48 -- ewido anti-spyware
35.43% = 45 -- Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro:
35.43% = 45 -- SUPERAntispyware
25.98% = 33 -- Kaspersky Internet Security:
25.20% = 32 -- Aluria Anti-Spyware
22.83% = 29 -- Computer Associates Anti-Spyware:
17.32% = 22 -- NOD32
11.81% = 15 -- Spybot S&D


===================================================


Tenth Round (August 26, 2006): 111 entries

Cleanup Success Rate for Entry-based Viewpoint:

71.17% = 79 -- Trend Micro Anti-Spyware
68.47% = 76 -- Sunbelt CounterSpy
65.77% = 73 -- Webroot Spy Sweeper
62.16% = 69 -- ewido anti-spyware
62.16% = 69 -- McAfee antispyware
59.46% = 66 -- PC Tools Spyware Doctor
54.05% = 60 -- Norton Internet Security
49.55% = 55 -- Computer Associates Anti-Spyware
44.14% = 49 -- F-Secure Internet Security
44.14% = 49 -- Microsoft Windows Defender
39.64% = 44 -- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
38.74% = 43 -- Panda Platinum Internet Security
38.74% = 43 -- Spybot S&D
38.74% = 43 -- ZoneAlarm Anti-spyware
36.94% = 41 -- SUPERAntispyware
32.43% = 36 -- Kaspersky Internet Security
30.63% = 34 -- NOD32:
22.52% = 25 -- Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro
_9.00% = 10 -- Aluria Anti-Spyware


===================================================

Eleventh Round (September 26, 2006): 126 entries

Cleanup Success Rate for Entry-based Viewpoint:

35.71% = 45 -- Sunbelt CounterSpy
33.33% = 42 -- Norton Internet Security
31.75% = 40 -- PC Tools Spyware Doctor
28.57% = 36 -- Computer Associates Anti-Spyware
28.57% = 36 -- McAfee antispyware
27.78% = 35 -- ewido anti-spyware
27.78% = 35 -- Webroot Spy Sweeper
25.40% = 32 -- Spybot S&D
24.60% = 31 -- Kaspersky Internet Security
24.60% = 31 -- SUPERAntispyware
22.22% = 28 -- F-Secure Internet Security
21.43% = 27 -- Panda Platinum Internet Security
20.63% = 26 -- Trend Micro Anti-Spyware
16.67% = 21 -- ZoneAlarm Anti-spyware
15.87% = 20 -- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
15.87% = 20 -- Microsoft Windows Defender
15.08% = 19 -- Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro
11.90% = 15 -- NOD32
_7.94% = 10 -- Aluria Anti-Spyware:



=====================================================

SUMMARY, these 3 last rounds TOTAL: 364 entries in 40 spies

Cleanup Success Rate for Entry-based Viewpoint:

54.67% = 199 -- Trend Micro Anti-Spyware
51.92% = 189 -- Sunbelt CounterSpy
50.00% = 182 -- Webroot Spy Sweeper
48.63% = 177 -- McAfee antispyware
46.70% = 170 -- PC Tools Spyware Doctor
41.76% = 152 -- ewido anti-spyware
41.21% = 151 -- Norton Internet Security
37.36% = 136 -- F-Secure Internet Security
34.62% = 126 -- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
33.24% = 121 -- Panda Platinum Internet Security
32.97% = 120 -- Computer Associates Anti-Spyware
32.69% = 119 -- ZoneAlarm Anti-spyware
32.42% = 118 -- Microsoft Windows Defender
32.14% = 117 -- SUPERAntispyware
27.47% = 100 -- Kaspersky Internet Security
24.73% = _90 -- Spybot S&D
24.45% = _89 -- Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro
19.51% = _71 -- NOD32
14.29% = _52 -- Aluria Anti-Spyware

Best regards,
Firefighter!

[robinb]

you know every review for each antispyware can be different and everyone has their own opinions. Pc Mag last yr rated spyware sweeper the best and when i had it, it slowed the computer down to a crawl when it did a scan and did the same to some of my clients computers so I removed it. The following year PC Mag sweared that Spyware Doctor is the best, that one took forever to load on startup and when they did a major update it knocked off my sound and moved my computer to a crawl when it did start up and I had to do a system restore to get everything working properly again and to tell you the truth it had more false positives then any antispyware program out there. On some of my clients computers it would not allow them to logon to Windows xp the first round, they had to shut the computer down and try at least 3x to get in and forget trying to switch users, it behaved nasty there too. An uninstall of the program and everything was back to normal. I still have it on some clients computers that did not have this problem but it still loads very slow on startup and i constantly get phone calls about it, and when it expires I will remove it completly unless it hiccups some more and I will remove it then.

There is no perfect antispyware program out there. If there was we would not need anything else but the "perfect" antispyware program. That is why you need more than one and perform "safe internet" to make sure you do not get a "baddie"

Robin

[ErikAlbert]

The winner is decided by the test environment and the same winner can be a loser in another test environment. It's just a matter of luck to be a winner.