Which Anti-Spyware do you prefer?

[sir_carew]

Which anti-spyware do you prefer? I prefer SpySweeper, however I use SpySweeper+Ad-Aware+Microsoft anti-spyware+Spybot Search & destroy.

[dog]

Giant ... prior to M$'s acquisition.

:lurking: *puppy* :lurking:

[Spray-on Dust]

This is tough. It's between MS AntiSpyware (I've never tried the Giant Version) and SpySweeper for me.

I've switched between both for the past few weeks or so and both have caught stuff the other hasn't. Coincidentally, I just caught my first piece of Spyware with Spysweeper the other day. It was the "Neededware". MS Antispyware caught some kazaa malware and something else maybe. They are both great but I can't really decide which offers better protection. I hate to say it (just because it's Microsoft :D ) but I might be leaning towards MS antispyware.

Only time will tell, however. My license for Spysweeper runs out in October.


Spray-on Dust

[the Tester]

The original Giant here too.

[Jimbob1989]

I have used all in the list apart from SpySweeper. All seem to do the job.

Jimbob

[polyglory]

Original Giant and Spysweeper

[manOFpeace]

I ticked Ad-aware simply because I can see results which are 99% clean. I have SpywareBlaster which could be equally as good as Ad-aware, but no results displayed. :)

[bigbuck]

I use SBS&D, SWB and AAW. They all play nicely together. I found the M$ one a bit buggy and got rid of it....it's still beta anyway.
Buck.

[zorro zorrito]

mmmmm, I Think for me is my mother in law staying by my side, that´s the best. jejeje, just a joke!!!

[nadirah]

I use SBS&D, AAW-SE, Spywareblaster and spywareguard. All run perfectly. ;)

[mercurie]

ADAWARE PLUS ;)

[Ailric]

"Which Anti-Spyware do you prefer?"

I prefer MS-Antispyware which is FREE and is proven to be best in various tests.

[Firecat]

eScan's XBases all the way!!! Of course, I do use Ad-Aware and Spybot too.

[aliwiseman]

I've found spysweeper to find stuff that spybot n adaware doesnt. It did conflict with Nod32 initially but soon sorted that. They all run happily enough tho together.

[Eldar]

I like Spy Sweeper & Ewido (realtime) a lot. They sit in my systray and play nicely together.:)
Never had any problem with these apps. Adwatch is also running in the systray.
Together with KAV I think it's a pretty strong defence.
Just removed the original Giant & ZeroSpyware, although my subscription to Giant wasn't expired yet.:(
I like it better this way. IMO

[Antarctica]

Ad-Aware Plus and SpyBot. :)

[Security Freak]

the best anti spyware is a combination of two or more,i have Doctor Spyware,Spy Boot S & D,Ad-aware and another one that sometimes i install for testing.

[abhi_mittal]

My arsenal consists of Spybot, Adaware, Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster and Intermute's SpySubtract.
I feel its better to have different programs as all programs have their own specialities.

Abhishek

[Security Freak]

-{ Quote: "My arsenal consists of Spybot, Adaware, Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster and Intermute's SpySubtract.
I feel its better to have different programs as all programs have their own specialities.

Abhishek" }-lol we have to use a coctel for removing spyware ;D

[Stephanos G.]

CounterSpy

[richrf]

Actually, Kaspersky 4.5 with extended databases seems to catch everything. So it would have to be my favorite. After that, Ad-aware seems to be the most useful in catching and cleaning up things. Giant use to find something now and then that Ad-aware missed, but after MS purchased it, it doesn't find anything anymore. MS must have done something to mute it. I'm going to run my once-a-month Giant scan hoping that it finds something and making my purchase somewhat worthwhile. No way will I renew. ;)

Rich

[abhi_mittal]

-{ Quote: "Giant use to find something now and then that Ad-aware missed, but after MS purchased it, it doesn't find anything anymore." }-

LOL, the guys at MS mess up things..ALWAYS! >:(

[S!x]

CounterSpy

[abhi_mittal]

Forgot to mention it...CounterSpy is a great tool. I am trialling it.

[richrf]

Yes, CounterSpy will be one of the tools I will be looking at when my Giant license expires.

Rich

[iwod]

Well i use most freeones... so i don't know which one to choose.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Not limited to just 1. While Microsofts Antispyware took over as my favorite tool, I still subscribe to the belief that in this area, it's best to take a shotgun approach and use several.

All clients, I install Microsoft Antispyware, Spybot...update and immunize, Adaware, and SpywareBlaster, update and protect. Also Google Toolbar for IE to help users from clicking on the wrong things.

[Blackspear]

I'm now a CounterSpy (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy.cfm) fan, no noticeable slowdown with the real-time monitor. I've written about it before, see my post here. (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=427577)

Hope this helps...

Cheers ;D

[WSFuser]

i use a variety of anti-spyware tools, from ad-aware, spybot s&d, spy sweeper, spyware blaster and spyware guard. Since they dont conflict i like to use together for optimum and thorough detection. btw shouldnt a vote for counterspy be a vote for spy sweeper since theyre just clones? neways for me spy sweeper is the best for the money, and spybot s&d for a free program.

[Blackspear]

-{ Quote: "...shouldnt a vote for counterspy be a vote for spy sweeper since theyre just clones?" }-As far as I know, no, MSAS and CS are virtually the same, they were cut from the same cloth so to speak.

Cheers ;D

[WSFuser]

duh! just realized that now. i have to get my antispyware correctly.

[Hard Rocker]

:D SpySweeper & CounterSpy are my favourites right now.

[Trooper]

Spybot then MSAS. I tried Counterspy and it hosed my system for some reason and had to reformat. So I won't be recommending that to anyone. :P

[Hard Rocker]

::) Although I have CounterSpy, I have experienced problems with the program as well. About 5 or 6 weeks back CounterSpy was detecting numerous F/P's & even picked up something called Viewpoint Toolbar within my AOL 9.0 program. Had I either quarantined or deleted this detection it would have wiped out my AOL 9.0 program & I would not have been able to access the internet !!! :(

I have had the program for about 6 months or so and previously to this ...... the program had performed well.

When I kept calling their 1 - 800 # in Florida for technical support for some of these other detections, which turned out to be all F/P's as well, one of their techs instructed me to go into the registry and start manually removing entries for some of the recurring detections. ??? This technician gave me these same instructions on 3 seperate occasions !!

I had explained to this guy, whose shall go nameless, that I am new to computers & asked if he would guide me through the procedure & his response was, for liability reasons he could NOT offer any assistance & that I should be learning this procedure myself !! >:(

Great advice .......... send an inexperienced PC owner into the registry without guidance. After speaking to his supervisor & receiving an apology, from this supervisor, for his techs advice, I doubt if this guy will be serving up that advice again any time soon in order to give CounterSpy clients the brush off.

On a positive note, since that time, for the last few weeks or so, the program has been running fine. :D However, there have been no updates since April 21 - Definition Version : 164 ! Previously, updates were mostly every day, so I am kind of wondering about this latest development. ???

[Security Freak]

what happend with Spyware Doctor? theres no have free version anymore? i can,t find the free version of this good anty spy

[sweater]

-{ Quote: ""Which Anti-Spyware do you prefer?"

I prefer MS-Antispyware which is FREE and is proven to be best in various tests." }-

;D Yes... me too, I trust it. It provide several protections not available w/ others. 8) ;)

[micaman]

After testing a dozen or so malware programs, with not-so-great results, I use Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, Microsoft AntiSpyware and Webroot's SpySweeper.

Ad-Aware catches the "Favoriteman" malware sometimes and clears usage tracks. Spybot clears usage tracks. Microsoft has not done much of anything lately. And the best one, Webroot, catches the rest BEFORE entering my machine! The best money spent for malware protection by far.

Before Webroot, the other scanners were quite busy. The best part of Webroot is the ease of use, plus you do not have to do a thing with it. I install it on my client's machines, so they do not have to "run the scans" and I can sleep knowing they are protected.

[rdsu]

CounterSpy ;D

[toploader]

i use the freebies adaware and spybot - as to the paid for products - i've tried a variety of free trials and they all produced conflicting results.

to be honest i don't trust any of them they all seem inclined to produce false positives. having read two threads where guys were driven bananas by apparent false positives from two well established products i'm in no hurry to buy anything.

to trust the scanners findings or not to trust the scanners findings that is the question.

whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous false positives or to just avoid p2p, porn sites, IE, outlook and dodgy downloads.

(with apologies to a well known english author)

[rawr]

See sig..

Main scanners: Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper
Back-up scanner: Ad-Aware SE PRO

[Trooper]

I just use these for On-Demand Scanners. I don't feel the need to run real time anti-spyware anymore.

Spybot S&D
Lavasoft AdAware
Counterspy

[bigc73542]

Actually I probably use to many.
Adaware SE-----------free
spywareblaster--------free
MSAS-----------------free
Spyware Doctor-------paid
SB/SD----------------free
Spywareguard--------free

[rdsu]

About what I'm using:

Active protection: WinPatrol PLUS and HostsMan (with MVPS Hosts file)
Demand protection: CounterSpy, Spybot-S&D and SpywareBlaster

[Gregory]

I'm using 3 anti-spyware tools Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1, Spy Sweeper and CounterSpy. Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1 does not even detect cookies. Spy Sweeper Scans the quickest and has been receiving the most updates lately and does more. It is blocking most spyware before it can even get into my computer but it starts up very slow when I turn my computer on. Some say CounterSpy has the highest detection rate but Spy Sweeper still detects cookies that CounterSpy does not so they are each detecting what the other is missing and CounterSpy gets a bug if it is interrupted when it is updating. So I'm not going to vote in this poll I can't decide.

[Me /GlobalForce]

Isn't there only one? ;D HJT for me! 8)

GF

[Get]

Indeed, if only one can be used it must be HJT. If not then I trust Spybot S&D and Spywareblaster/guard, trust Adaware a little bit less, but use it, and don't trust all the others (spysweeper, counterspy and the likes of them), because when I tested them they only found false positives/were buggy (slowing down and/or messing up my pc in one way or another). Could be some of them have grown out of this, but don't feel the urge to find out...yet.

[ErikAlbert]

Because I don't pay for security, my choice is limited :

1. MSAS
2. Ad-Aware
3. Spybot S&D
4. SpywareBlaster
5. SpywareGuard
6. Bazooka
7. Microsoft Malicious Tool
8. HijackThis

I ditched WinPatrol, because the combination "MSAS Realtime + SpywareGuard" offers more protection than WinPatrol and there is some overlapping when you use all three together.
MSAS Realtime reports also much faster than WinPatrol.

I ditched Spyware Doctor Free (SD) also, because at that time SD was eating my CPU.
I didn't check SD anymore after that, so I don't know if SD is improved or not.

IMO you can live with only two good AV scanners, but not with only two AS scanners.
IMO AV scanners are also much more mature, when you consider the detection rates of AV scanners.
The detection rates of AS scanners, I've seen, where significant lower.

I don't see viruses as a daily threat anymore and even former virus writers are using now their skills to write adware/spyware programs, because it pays better and they also need more money to pay bills, when they get older.
Even when I was lesser carefull, I had several adware/spyware infections, but never viruses.
So I expect more adwares/spywares than viruses in the future and even innocent looking attractive freewares with hidden adware functions, that won't be removed by AS scanners.
Special search toolbars is a typical example and some hardware vendors pre-install them on new computers and I don't trust all these search engines, like Google, either.
In general you can't trust any free software or service, that offers something that can be used by many people.

Of course these are all personal speculations and although personal advertising is still in its infancy, you won't be able to stop it in the future and maybe the older generations are against personal advertising, but that doesn't mean that the new generations will have the same attitude.
Advertising on TV wasn't allowed in Belgium for a long time and now every TV station advertises and everybody accepted it.
The same will happen with personal advertising on computers, people need only time to get used to it.

[myluvnttl]

I used Acronis PrivacyExpert. It seem to do it's job for the money I pay for it. I was using SpySweeper before, but Acronic seem more user-friendly, just one click and you are set, with SpySweeper, you have to set this and set that, and do this......

[Ardias]

Well i use Spybot Search & Destroy and adware free edition.

[Brandon]

SpySweeper 4.0 cant wait too see the final release of SpySweeper 4.5 which is currently in beta ;) I also use Ad-Aware SE Pro, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster.

Regards,

Brandon

[dja2k]

Okay we all have our favorites, but in reality which one is better in terms of memory usage, scanning time, real-time scanner efficiency, more definations, and avoids conflict with things that we run like Ewido (real time) ,ProcessGuard, Regdefend, Kav, or Nod32 etc. Anyone care to fill in the blanks for specs like that?

MS Antispyware?

Spyware Doctor 3.2?

Counterspy?

Spysweeper 4?

Other?

dja2k ::)

[chrisretusn]

I voted for Spybot - Search & Destroy; however I also use Ad-Aware SE Personal and SpywareBlaster.

[metallicakid15]

i prefer pest patrol

[Yannis]

I use (hold on):

Spyware doctor
Spybot Search and destroy
SpywareBlaster
Spydefense
MS antispyware
Ewido
Spy Sweeper
Ad-Aware SE

All the above the same time without any conflict!
My system is a Pentium 4 ,512 Ram, 3Ghz, Win XP home SP2, IE 6.0
:) :) :)
Cheers!!

[Osaban]

I would say MS ANTISPYWARE is a very good program and free. I uninstalled a few months ago as I felt that running SHADOWUSER and PROCESS GUARD made it redundant on my system.

Occasionally (once a month) I scan my drive on demand with SPYBOT S&D, ADWARE SE, and EWIDO but they have always invariably found nothing.

[ErikAlbert]

If your protection is based on blacklist scanners :

1. Most security websites advice at least (classics) : Spybot, Ad-Aware and SpywareBlaster.
2. In reality you need every available legitimate AS scanner, because they ALL have a DIFFERENT blacklist :
Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper, CounterSpy, Ewido, Pest Patrol, ... (MSAS is still in beta).
What one scanner doesn't find, COULD be found by the others and sometimes you have bad luck.

At SWI the qualified helpers ask malware-victims to run Spybot, Ad-Aware, AVG Free FIRST and if that doesn't help, the victims have to post their HijackThis Log.
In spite of these 3 scanners SWI receives enough HijackThis Logs to keep the many qualified helpers busy all day long and that also proves, that 3 scanners aren't enough.

Of course some users run less scanners and are satisfied with the scanner-message "No threats found."
When I get that message, I always think "And what about the threats, you didn't find ?"
If you don't like that question and want to fool yourself, than scanners are enough, at least in your MIND, not on your harddisk. :)

[myresponse]

Well, I guess I prefer to use all of them (talked about here)......and none of them.

[Alphalutra1]

WinPatrol wroof! wroof! ;D

[dja2k]

Do any of you people like Microtrend's free Antispyware online scanner ? I always get false positives with it, how about you?

dja2k

[sweater]

In the past I really love and like Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta coz of its real-time monitors...my gosh it has lots of them to protect us in real-time. But, I found out that it eats up my system resources and slowed down my pc as I only uses 256MB RAM.. and so I have to uninstall it and after re-boot then clean w registry cleaners..and ohhh... what a relief my pc now is much quicker and faster. :D :o

I have to rely now on my WinPatrol, Script Defender (to block scripts), etc and other light on resources anti-spywares programs to monitor my system. Anyway, I only uses Firefox browser. ;) 8)

[taihaukau]

Counterspy

[starfish_001]

Zero Spyware + spybot S&D

[WSFuser]

I voted some while ago, but now Im leaning toward superantispyware. it has good detection rates and its available in free and paid versions.

[<DreamCatcher>]

I just wanted to they are all really nice programs to use, but i had to go for spysweeper as it ran the best on my system. Cpu usage is round about 4-5% > and runs two processes WRSSSDK.exe mem usage 5.260/ SpySweeper.exe mem usage 4.660.

I have tried counterspy and it had some problems with Cpu usuage for example it used between 21-25% Cpu when was running full protection, but I did like its design and the way it alerted.
For example these two processes always used alot of memory and the sunserver process seemed to interfer with some other programs at start up.
SunThreatEngine.exe 46.676
SunProtectionServer.exe 27.600

Spyware doctor I think has a nice interface, but tended to slow down my system, I did like MS Anti-spyware> but with windows Defender I didn't feel very safe, as all it did was notify in the event logs that it has identfied something! Spybot and ad-aware were the first two spyware apps that I ever used, so I kinda like keeping these programs around.

Take care

[Bubba]

-{ Quote: "Im leaning toward superantispyware" }-That indeed is a good player and given the fact this thread is over a year old, one of the 6 choices is not an Anti-Spyware program....perhaps it is time for someone to create an up to date Anti-Spyware Poll with as many of the now a day players as possible :-\

[btman]

Spyware blaster an anti-spyware XD. I hate super antispyware.... lol... I just didn't like it, dont ask why. I no its a legit program.. but it looks like the many crappy programs i have downloaded with the spy guy.. and it found f/p and ugh i just dont like it lol.

[InfinityAz]

-{ Quote: "....perhaps it is time for someone to create an up to date Anti-Spyware Poll with as many of the now a day players as possible :-\" }-

Good suggestion Bubba, so I created a new version of an AntiSpyware poll here:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=136630

[dog]

Please post in the new and updated poll mention in the post above - As there is a newer Antispy poll thread this poll is now closed. ;)

Steve