Just installed; can I scan for spyware on my computer?

I heard about Spyware Blaster last night and was told that it was better than Spybot. So...I deleted Spybot and downloaded Spyware Blaster. Now that I've installed Spyware Blaster I checked all the boxes to protect my computer but am wondering about what may already be on my computer? I'm used to scanning for problems with Spybot and am not sure how this works. "Protecting" to me does not necessarily imply "cleaning up." It seems to me that I should scan for problems, clean things up THEN protect. Am I missing something?

 

Hi Linda,

Welcome at Wilder's
Spywareblaster is a preventive software so you cannot scan anything with it.
It's a perfect complement to Spybot.Spybot is a cleaning software(in this case don't use the Immunize section of Spybot.SB doing this job far better IMHO)
When you click ont he "protect button" of SB your PC will be protected from future download of nasties but you need Spybot to clean the already existing ones.

 

Linda - Whether or not the "immunize"-type protection of Spybot S&D is used, I wouldn't uninstall it - SpywareBlaster is not considered as a "replacement" for Spybot S&D.

I (and many others) would recommend using both SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard to help prevent spyware infections. In addition, I would keep Spybot S&D installed for running periodic scans. Many people (including myself) run scans with Ad-aware as well, since Ad-aware will occasionally catch something Spybot S&D has missed (and the opposite is true).

Once the four programs are installed, it only requires a few seconds to check for updates for each, and a few minutes each week or two to scan with Spybot S&D and Ad-aware.

If a user has relatively tight browser security settings and runs those four programs, they should be very well-protected against the vast majority of spyware and other parasites ...

 

I agree with that, I use the 4 programs, the only spyware that I get doing scans is tribalfusion's cookie running Ad-Aware and I reported it on this forum yesturday so I will have a spyware free computer by the next SpywareBlaster's update.