Would you consider Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D old?

It seems as though they've lost popularity... so what contributed to this happening?

 

They are by now far outdated IMHO except to relic collectors.

Overly harsh as that sounds, both of them have been left eating dust of the other more innovative AS programs simply because today's better antispyware programs have poured a more concerted & serious effort into their respective programs from listening to their users and quickly acting on these reports/reviews to better advance Positive Results.

That's my take on it anyway.

 

I only use Spybot for the Bad download blocker. I use Adaware for cookies but I'm thinking of ditching it.

 

EASTER.2010, I concur.

cheater87, using ad-aware for cookie detection seems a little odd to say the least. Not only do all other scanners offer cookie detection, it's not really necessary to have them detected and/or deleted.

 

Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D have good purposes, but sadly I think they are worthless to have and are a waste of space on a computer. There are much better free scanners, and you can get paid versions real cheap if you look.

 

i agree with disinter1's statements.

also spybot recently released a beta and ive heard ad-aware 2007 is coming, but its not enough to make me use or recommend them.

 

I replace my Ad-Aware with SuperAntispyware coz this is more popular... but I still retain my Spybot S&D coz of their immunize system feature and bad download blocker.. I also have AVG antispyware and A-Squared free and SpywareBlaster for added "strength" in case the other one fails...

 

Adaware: The free version is outdated but the paid version looks OK (but pricey).

Spybot: Outdated. I liked the tea timer function, but you can get that with other apps.

I have neither on my machine any longer.

 

My compliments to topic starter, this a good one.

Adaware had my respect in the past cause it actually detected and removed spyware. Last time i used it on a very infected system it found notingh!

Most people i know still use it and actually think theyr protected with the free version. I tried to install programs such as asquared for them but were afraid id mess up their pc so by their words they prefer to rely on what "everybody" uses.

I hope the next verion will be better and guys pls report about it somewhere here in the future.

This prog. is a nono for me now but if it improves i might use it again.

 

So what anti-spyware software do you guys use now? I only have Spyware Terminator, but is that enough?

 

well i have superantispyware and spyweeper.
i use both as on demand and they never find anything.
spyware seems to eiether died down or im just to smart and safe to have it infect me
i also use a squared free.
lodore

 

I use both Shadowing software and BOClean and during the last ,say,15 months both AA and SpyB have only excelled in useless cookies or false positives.
I now keep just one of them per pc,just to make a useless scan once a month or so,but,like others here,i dont know for how long.

Superantispyware can,at the moment, do better than both of them,alas.
I say alas because they were very effective companions once.

 

I still use Adaware Se and Spybot-search & Destroy. (i mainly use Spybot now for the immunizer)

Spybot-search & Destroy still finds me malware that others don't the could be false positives but still.

These 2 antispyware were the best at 1 point and hopefully the new version 2007 and 1.5 will be the best once again.


I also use Superantispyware, AVG antispyware & A-Squared and Spywareblaster.

I don't think i need any extra protection?

 

I think of Ad-Aware and Spybot as the old guard. I use AVG Anti-Malware.

 

Not used either in over two years. They've been overtaken by a lot of AS application's. Even a lot of the AV and AT apps are better at detecting Spyware than those golden oldies.

I often wonder just how good they really were in the first place. Lets face it we only had those two to use a few years back. Just how accurate were the opinion's & reviews on them? Spyware was a new thing back then, not anywhere near as prevalent as it is now. These days there are over a dozen top quality spyware detectors. From out and out Antispyware apps to Antivirus's. When an in-depth test is done these days, it is done pitting many AS capable apps against one another. The number of threats they are tested against has increased easily by ten fold. Add to that the many methods and ingenius ways spyware tries to infect nowadays compared to back then.

When you look back, were they really that good? Or was it a case of we didn't know any better. Maybe now that some real quality AS application's have been created and the pogramming and detection quality has been improved that we are finding out that Ad-Aware and Spybot are simply average. No more, no less.

muf

 

Ad-Aware is quite good in removing what it can and Spybot has tools going for it. Trouble with some antispyware I've looked at is breaking something like internet when fixing something, never had that problem with Ad-Adware but I have with 2 younger and popular scanners. Old? yeah but experience, I'll see what the next AA is like before judging but at the moment they are far behind ones like SAS.

Cookies - cookies should not be detected by antispyware, better to sort out your cookies needed and untick that box.

 

I will not use anything except Spybot and AdAware occasionally (plus Spyware Blaster of course). I've tried most of the newer ones and dislike all of them. All are bloated, slow, ruin your internet experience (if used in real time) and find only FP's. Most users that are advanced enough to be posting here don't need all those newer, heavier antispyware applications. Just use Proxo, and possibly BoClean, and your head when computing and you won't get any spyware (except for FP's).

 

Hello,
No reason to abandon them just because they are no chic. Spybot is a nice little tool.
Mrk

 

Agree
Still under active development
Other good tools under the hood
Free _if you cant donate_ still.
Active support from many experienced users across the web
Still a reference tool for many HJT experts.

Not so sure about Adaware anymore though.
Just personal pref.