Still a need for Spy Sweeper these days?

Using NOD32, Online Armor (paid), and have pretty much ignored everything else like Adaware etc. I have a copy of Spy Sweeper 5 for which the updates expired in May 2008.

What are your thoughts about the importance of things like Spy Sweeper?

 

I used Spysweeper and is very good but very heavy on resources! It would be better to have SUPER AS & MBAM free and do weekly scans and even A2 Free. So I would say no but it is up to you!

TH

 

NOD32 isn't good at detecting adware/spyware, is it ? Unless it's Eset Smart Security or something like that. (I've read about it, never used it).


I have Spy Sweeper version 5.5.7, I suppose it still can be somewhat useful. Not a resource hog on MY computer.

Your expired Spy Sweeper may provide some protection, but the seriously out of date definitions are a drawback.

I wouldn't recommend the later versions, expect more resource hogging and collection of 'personal' data. Plus the bad customer service.

I know virtually nothing about Online Armor.

I think you should have some way of dealing with spyware, adware, keyloggers, backdoors, rootkits, ransomware etc.

 

No, spy sweeper sucks, and now they install a taskbar without your permission....this software is a spyware now,you dont want that,don't ya?

If you want a high detection and a complete antispy stick with spyware doctor...

 

I'm not up to date with the latest Spy Sweeper versions.

Last time I tried to 'upgrade' to 5.8, there was in the customized install an option to NOT install the toolbar. (Anyway, I went back to 5.5.7)

Spyware Doctor ? I once considered it a very good program, but the release of version 5 was terrible. All sorts of problems, Pctools tried to fix things in several new versions, but in the end I had to reformat my harddisk.
That 'final release' was basically a very bad beta.
Plus bad business ethics. I'll never buy something from that company again.

 

I second that .

 

I guess you need to change other security program, because SpySweeper really consume system resource, I/O read and write and many error of this program behaviour. I guess they don't fully do QA in real world pc.

 

I'm still on version 5.5.7, I didn't like 5.8, but this version is light on resources on MY computer.

 

I think a real-time antispyware program wouldn't be a bad idea.
If you aren't sure of SpySweeper there are other programs that you could trial.

You could take a look at:
SUPERAntispyware (free or Pro versions available)
A-Squared (Free or AntiMalware versions available)
CounterSpy(Paid version)

 

FYI, Counterspy has a free fully functional trial, same goes for VIPRE (also made by Sunbelt, includes antivirus and such, Counterspy is a subset of VIPRE)

 

A "free fully functional trial" = shareware. After all you do have to pay for it after the trial period expires. That's the difference between freeware and shareware.

As for Vipre, I wouldn't advise running two antivirus programs, especially since the original poster asked about SpySweeper and not an antivirus program.

 

I follow the advice of having one AV, one firewall, and at least one anti-spyware program.

For my primary anti-spyware, the ability to detect as many infectors as possible is what I give the greatest weight to. As such, I use Webroot Spy Sweeper (now version 6).

I have all of the realtime shields on, and I don't perceive any performance problems with it.

The on-demand scanner _will_ slow the machine down noticeably. For this reason I have it scheduled to automatically run every morning, and if I'm using the machine to do something disk-intensive at the time, I just cancel out of it.

(My (and your) NOD32 does check for spyware, and my Zonealarm Pro includes antispyware as well, the latter getting decent reviews, but I treat both of these as secondaries.)