Spyware Doctor starter Edition 5.1.0.273

[Perman]

Hi, folks;

Just notice the post at majorgeeks. It is a freeware. Last time I tested this was some long time ago, was not very impressed at all. Out of curiosity, this time I installed it and using its on demand scanner primarily. Its data base has been greatly improved, surprisingly no F.P. Loading up scanner has somewhat sped up and scanning speed has significantly improved. Still a common drawback among AS's realtime scanner, namely resource hogging. For some one who is looking for a good quality, full duty free AS app, this one could be a keeper. Advantage over SAS pro is its cost free feature. PCTools has recently come to good terms with average PC home users by providing good selection of freewares; firewall, AV, AS and ThreatFire. Perhaps they have finally realized that the best place to make bucks is in corporate sector, while the optimal venue to gain good reputation is in average joes/janes' heart. For that I give PCTools a:thumb: and ;)

[dNor]

I used it for a while when it was first introduced into the Google Pack. It's nice, although missing some features from the registered version, which it reminds you of.

Eventually I uninstalled it, but I didn't notice any major downsides to the software.

[Jeleal]

As a hobbyist and hypothetically speaking. Is this program just as good as the paid versions of SAS or AVG AS? I would appreciate some replies on this, but whoever answers please be careful it doesn't become a verses thread, or it may be shut down.

[EliteKiller]

-{ Quote: "As a hobbyist and hypothetically speaking. Is this program just as good as the paid versions of SAS or AVG AS? I would appreciate some replies on this, but whoever answers please be careful it doesn't become a verses thread, or it may be shut down." }-
No, Spyware Doctor has taken the path of Webroot due to major bloat and lackluster detection rates. It chokes on the "hard to remove" malware regardless of the high ratings it receives in the magazine reviews. FWIW SAS free and paid have identical detection rates.

[Wordward]

From searching the web it seems quite a few people use SD Starter Edition without slow downs and really like it.

[Perman]

Hi, folks;

I was among those people who heavily criticized its problems in earlier days. Now, perhaps it is a time to revisit it and give it a more fair look. Take care.

[jfd15]

Tried SD from the googlepack as i had read good things about it on a few other sites- supposedly found stuff that other programs had missed...didnt find anything on my computer, maybe nothing to find-

PC Tools graphics and design seem kind of cheesy so im never very impressed with their stuff.- seems to be targeted towards 10-year old kids or something

[Wordward]

I hope none of the many ThreatFire and PC Tools Firewall users hear you say that jfd15. LOL. Personally I like the way all their GUI's are layed out.

[solcroft]

-{ Quote: "I hope none of the many ThreatFire and PC Tools Firewall users hear you say that jfd15. LOL. Personally I like the way all their GUI's are layed out." }-
Why not? It's not like his opinion matters to us.

Another fan of the PC Tools UI as well.

[Wordward]

Hey solcroft, be nice. LOL. I would like to know if Spyware Doctor Starter Edition has ever been tested by anyone in here. I just installed it and it's running well. I do wonder however if you or anyone else thinks it could actually be close to the caliber that both SuperAntiSpyware and AVG AS are for On Demand and RealTime detection?

[jfd15]

-{ Quote: "I hope none of the many ThreatFire and PC Tools Firewall users hear you say that jfd15. LOL. Personally I like the way all their GUI's are layed out." }-

yeah Wordward, i guess one heard already...i dont know why, i just look at threatfire and i know the program is supposed to be good, i just wish they had done more with the looks of it..i guess its just me though

[jfd15]

-{ Quote: "Why not? It's not like his opinion matters to us.

Another fan of the PC Tools UI as well." }-


Thanks, good to know...

[Wordward]

I told him to be nice jfd15, but he doesn't listen. LOL. It's ok not to like their GUI. I don't like some programs GUI's myself that a lot of other people do, and it's all right.

[jfd15]

oh yeah, doesnt matter Wordward...main thing was that i had read good things about it on some other site...if someone else like the looks of the program great

[Wordward]

Comparatively speaking. Is this software on par with other name AS programs like AVG AS and SAS?

[rookieman]

I guess this would be good if someone wasn't running a AS program.Does this scan in realtime?Is it Vista compatible?:-[

[Wordward]

Just installed this again and like it. It runs well with ThreatFire and the two compliment each other quite well. it now has 203,877 signatures which I think while less than the full version are all the latest ones. I noticed something interesting too. When it detects something in one of its scans it shows a bug beside what it finds, which in my case was only cookies, and this bug looks almost identical to the SuperAntiSpyware System Tray beetle icon. I think if anyone tries this program out along with TF, they'll like it.

[acr1965]

I received an email from PC Tools stating that the signatures in SD Starter Ed. are actually from an evaluation database which contain "older signatures" which are "not as up to date".

[EliteKiller]

-{ Quote: "Comparatively speaking. Is this software on par with other name AS programs like AVG AS and SAS?" }-
No. However it could be on par with Spybot or Ad-aware.

-{ Quote: "it now has 203,877 signatures which I think while less than the full version are all the latest ones. " }-
Correct, you get roughly one third of the signatures compared to the full version that contains 660K+ (not including AV sigs), so in essence it's gimped software.

http://www.pctools.com/forum/showpost.php?p=174561&postcount=14

The extra 400,000 signatures are part of the SD (malware) database and the AV database is separate to this.

[Wordward]

Thanks everyone. It did update today, but because of what I have just read, off it goes.