Describe the advantage of each anti spyware scanner with phrases

Given three properties: cheap, fast and reliable, you can only ever have two, never all three.

All the legitimate antispyware scanners seem to have solid advantages going for them, I was wondering what these were?

The problem is that I hear a random advantage in one thread that say for example, Super antispyware has few false positives but never get it confirmed.

This thread's question is: What does each antispyware product have going for it?

In my usage:

• Super Antispyware is slow
• Spybot S&D is fast
• Adaware, I have no idea
• PestPatrol has many false positives
• Spyware Terminator is comprehensive
• Spyware Doctor, I have no idea

I'm not asking WHY, I'm asking WHAT they are

 

Disagree. They are average to me.

Agree. I'm sure most people will agree.

I like SD while not quite as bad as PP, has quite a few FP too.

 

Don't mean to be be rude but could you do it in list format then refute my comments?

I believe Spybot is fast because rather than taking a brute force approach to files like Super Antispyware it takes a brute force against individual malware. This means it only scans through all the stored definitions and checks for them rather than going through every file to see if it has anything to do with a malware.

I'l add.

• CounterSpy is buggy and has false positives. The [+] button doesn't work if the list of traces is too long
• Windows Defender good resident protection, slow on demand.

 

Superantispyware is cheap, fast, and reliable.
Asquared is cheap, fast, and reliable.
AVG AS is cheap, fast and reliable.
SpywareTerminator is cheap, fast, and reliable.
Spybot S&D is cheap, fast, and reliable.

 

Who is a funny guy?

On a more serious note, can you think of any specific advantages for each?

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.
I use them all, ST as resident, the rest as demand scanners.
In no particular order of preference:

-Spybot: Well supported and understood
-SAS: Reputed to remove the "tricky" malware
-Asquared: Thorough, good for trojans
-SpywareTerminator: Very good resident freeware
-AVG: Fast.
-AdAware2007: Bloated, poor support.

They are all extremely cheap. And all (except AdAware) have been problem free for me. They all have the occasional FP, I think, can't recall seeing one with SAS, though.
With a good resident running, I never seem to get malware, so none of them have recently been put to the test, sorry.

 

No worries! You said the sort of thing I was looking for. I don't get malware either but even so, we both have impression of how well the software works.

I too don't understand why AdAware has TrackSweep in it, it feels like it should be implemented by separate software. If Lavasoft really wanted to do it, I'd rather they made a privacy suite that was integrated with AdAware for example...

 

Can anybody add anything for software non mentioned or have we covered it?

 

Drawbacks (in free versions, that's all that interests me):
* Heard S-Terminator installs a toolbar in the browser, is that true?
* According to download.com Spybot is full of bugs. Those guys are not all geniuses, do you agree? Haven't used it in 2 years, can't remenber any bugs.
* Windows Defender requires genuine Windows.. who pays for THAT?! Major drawback!

Possibly add: NoAdware.net. It seems to be free and good?
PS Have only used Spybot+Adaware (and right now I use only KAV6, it's supposed to block "malware" too.)

 

Yes, if you install the version with the "web security guard", which is a bit analagous to "siteadvisor", I think, not having used it. Plenty do, though, I just don't want any toolbars. At all.
To use the non-toolbar'd version, just scroll to the second download down the page, should be fairly obvious.

You mean, according to the user reviews? Personally I've found Spybot to be almost totally non-buggy.

That's far too polite a way to describe them. But, you have to start somewhere. I think at least half the users at Download are more interested in their personal score of puerile activities such as "Who gets the best write-up scores" or "How many reviews have I written" or "How popular am I". But, hey, we were all somewhere around that skill level once. I'm not far removed from it. And it's not too hard to work out which reviews carry a bit more credibility.

And what's the problem with that? Once you've bought and registered Windows, you're entitled to Defender, if you want it. Personally I won't ever get Windows Defender, because (a) I'm happy with what I have, (b) I've read that it's mediocre, at best.
Personally, I think there are much better applications around than AdAware. It won't be on my computer again.

 

Nice combo.

Mine consists of Sandboxie which after all these years FINALLY works great! Gotta love that.

I alternate depending on snapshots of using EQSecure 3.4 which is turned into a magnificient HIPS for me and System Safety Monitor that continues to prove a stable force in this defensive arsenal.

I tried ProSecurity lately and i have to offer some high honors for it's continued strengths, and am only holding out untill they get it fine tuned even more. It definitely runs stable now where before used to give me fits. Still, being a HIPS, theres always that learning process to find out where & how everything is supposed to be configured right.

If we're talking spyware scanner only i still admire the efforts of SuperAntiSpyware. I used to really like A2Squared but am turned of by the 16 MB installed. I believe an antimalware scanner doesn't have to be so heavy to be effective, but that might just be a consequence of it's IDS protection features too.

 

Spybot - This and Adaware never find... Anything
Adaware 2007 - Good for getting harmless cookies, bloatware
AVG AS - No problems, great detection
A-Squared - Great detection, False Positive Issues
Spyware Terminator - Ok Detection, very slow scan
SUPER - Ok Detection. It's in the middle on everything lol.
Counterspy - Had many issues...
Spyware Doctor - Had some issues...
Arovax Anti-Spyware - Haven't tested its detection personally yet, probably wouldn't fare well, prone to false positives. Fast scan though.

 

Nope! It's the "Editor's review" actually. Quotes: "its bugginess makes it difficult to recommend" ... "the program has the tendency to lock up at times and even during the install process for this review, we encountered several errors" ... "but there are others in the category that do a better job without all the bugs".

But I don't think I always tend to agree with those editors. Some here at Wilders find Spybot old though, so maybe they're right: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=178414
But who's right I dunno and apparently a new version of Spybot is in beta

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I was thinking on posting a new thread on this but it might fit here:
Don't you agree a good spyware scanner should scan in Alternate Data Streams (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_data_streams for explanation)? It's a known problem that viruses easily hide in there, and all trustworthy AVs scan there since years back so why shouldnt an AS do it?

The only AS is heard scans ADS is AdAware and apparently the new version of Spyware Terminator (according to https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=181630&highlight=%22alternate+data+streams%22).
Anyone knows if the other AS programs scan ADS?

 

That's not what I read on the editor's review...maybe we were looking at different pages? Cnet editors review

Yes, SpywareTerminator does have the ability to scan ADS. (So does HJT.), and, I think, antirootkit scanners.
There was a Beta modification released for Spybot that addressed the well known bug of the teatimer allow/deny window buttons being too small. and unreadable. May have done some other stuff, too.
Spybot is as honest as the winter is long. I cannot bring myself to uninstall it, as long as it is so well supported. (Frequent updates, good forum.)

 

Well, yes, probably, since I was talking about Spybot and your link is for Adaware! But that's ok, I'm sleepy too... And I trust you more than Cnet anyway, so Spybot is probably ok (and version 1.5 coming up).

 

For quite sometime now SUPERAntiSpyware free and Pro both can scan ADS if it is selected in the scanning control TAB

 

It is free to download and scan with but once it finds something it requires purchasing before it will remove stuff.

With all the free ASW softwares around SAS,AVG ASW7.5 free, A2 antimalware then its fair to say that mediocre *find file* scanner dose nothing to warrant inclusion on any recomended list(unless of course by recomendation of an affiliate)

 

Glad we could rule that one out then. Haven't seen that remark before (no threads on noadware here since 2004!), and wikipedia say it's popular and that it has been on the rogue list but not anymore. But I did find their home page a bit too overwhelming to be serious, with testimonials and stuff, so if your information is not from 2004, then noadware goes in the bin.

 

Whoops. My bad. Saw "Spybot"+ "buggy", thought "Adaware = Buggy".

 

* Spyware Doctor, I have no idea

Great detection bit heavy though so i install it oncemonth scan

 

SUPERAntiSpyware Pro: never finds anything except cookies (and wants to reboot) - has a great reputation around here for removing tough malware - so far all I see is request for reboot after it finds cookies of the advertising.com variety. Scanning speed depends on options used.

Prevx2 - good protection but slow scan - responsive support and quick resolution of false positives - some concerns that their community database may have flagged well camouflaged malware as benign.

AdAware 2007 - this was bloatware extreme on my system - happy riddance

SpySweeper (without AV) - very heavy on system resources depending on protection options, slow scan speed, but good detection rates

Windows Defender - OK to so-so detection, moderate to good prevention, on the plus side it has excellent stability and compatibility.

 

Agreed! For me it always found many items but very slowly.

That's all it finds for me too. I will mess about with some options, any idea what options make it slow? Would it be wise to turn off file scanning, so it turns into a 'quick' or 'smart' scan in terms of other scanners. I have on:

• ignore files larger than 4MB
• Ignore non executable files
• Ignore system volume information and restore
• Scan only known file types

I have many games installed that tend to have many files and I blame this.

 

And if you have a clean system then why should it detect anything other than tracking cookies dropped by visiting websites(and even this is optional in scanning control)

This reminds me of something i read at another site sometime back but unfortunetly i cannot trace the topic to link too,but in a nutshell the OP posting then was disappointed that SAS only ever detected cookies for them and even did'nt detect any False/Positives for them like other used softwares

 

The reason it asks for a reboot after finding cookies is because those cookies are on other users accounts.