CounterSpy v. Windows Defender

[acr1965]

What are the similarities/differences in these two products? I have heard that the CounterSpy scan engine is the same as that used by Windows Defender.

[the Tester]

The similarity of these two programs is that they came from the same source--Giant Antispyware.Giant was a very good antispyware program that had a business arrangement of sorts with SunBelt that allowed Sunbelt to make CounterSpy.Giant=CounterSpy.MicroSoft bought Giant.

While Sunbelt has fared well(for the most part) in recent antispyware tests,Windows Defender has not done well at all.The program has gone downhill!

If you are looking at both programs,CounterSpy is $19.9x/first year and $9.9x/year renewal.WD is free.This is really a case where you get what you pay for.
Sometime around the end of the year CounterSpy 2.0 will be released and this is a big improvement in the resource usage category for CounterSpy.