Spyware scan vs virus scan?

I regularky scan for viruses and spyware. I noticed that my antivirus product scans 300,000 files. My antispyware product scans only 119,000 files.

Both are set to run "full system scans".

Why does my AV scan so many more files?

 

Not absolutely sure, but maybe your antispyware program is set up to scan fewer types of files on your hard drive? Look over the options menu on your antispyware program to see if it will skip over certain types of files.

 

your AV and AS probably count files/folders differently. thats all.

 

I'm guessing and hoping that you are correct. Because I have both set to do full system scans.

It takes NOD32 about 30-32 minutes to scan 300,000 files.


It takes spyware Doctor 18-20 minutes to scan 119,000 files.

 

My GF has a pretty old notebook which got BADLY infected yesterday. Since IMHO spy sweeper is the best anti-spyware program i told her to d/l spysweeper and check/clean her computer.

Her measly HD is only like 50GB...and about 40% filled.

It took almost THREE freaking hours to SCAN her and spy sweeper found 40 bad entries, 8 or so serious spyware, rest cookies.

JUST TO ^%!$! tell us (after 3 hrs scanning and her laptop down because of the slowdown!) that "spy sweeper found 40" malware entries...AND TO CLEAN YOU HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE. You can NOT clean with the free version you download off the webroot site. (This was their newest version w/ the AV killer built in)


So..3 hrs wasted.

This is especially dumb since i remember with their older version you could clean for a period of time...but this d/l was totally worthless.

 

Yes...both Spysweeper and Spyware Doctor have trial versions that do not clean the malware they detect. A cheap and underhanded sales tactic in my opinion. Both Webroot and PC Tools should be ashamed.

For a good, FREE cleaning download SuperAntiSpyware. It has very good detection rates and will actually remove what it detects.

And even though I feel like Spysweeper provides excellent protection, it is getting difficult for me to recomend the product because it has become somewhat bloated. It brought my machine to a crawl. Had to uninstall.