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Anti-Spyware Group Test

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wolfman
wolfman Posts: 3,225 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Pc Pro have just done a group review. Quite interesting results.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/133/anti-spyware/products.html

Spybot and AdAware don't do too well. Counterspy (which a friend uses) does well and I've been impressed with it from what I've seen. Not too bad for £14 either.
"Boonowa tweepi, ha, ha."
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Comments

  • hesmy
    hesmy Posts: 39 Forumite
    If you have official Windows XP,you can download Windows Anti-Spyware free from the MSN website.Since I did,I've not had a single pop-up.
  • coolagarry
    coolagarry Posts: 1,261 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I agree with hesmy. I love microsoft antispyware stuff... at last they seem to be getting their act together (although I use the other two to do a sweep now and then)
    I'm Glad to be here... At my age I'm glad to be anywhere!!
    I'm not losing my hair... I'm getting more head!!
  • 2ax
    2ax Posts: 645 Forumite
    I read about some other reviews of anti-spyware on Brian Livingston's newsletter - some interesting stuff about Zone Alarm too.
    https://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/050929

    He also suggests, like PCPro magazine, that AdAware and Spybot S&D are in decline relative to the others.

    CounterSpy comes out well a few times - it shares the engine and database updates of the Microsoft product, but maybe is more developed. There seems to be a 15 day trial version available from Sunbelt - I don't know yet what proportion of fully-functional it will be, but I think I will download it soon and give it a try (dial-up, so don't expect more from me this evening about it).

    http://www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy.cfm
  • redrez
    redrez Posts: 41 Forumite
    Got the full version on 14 day trial, from https://www.download.com, and seems to be pretty good. Not sure if its worth the money, could be cheaper out there. :confused:
    If only I'd found this site sooner!! :think:
  • mdb99jh
    mdb99jh Posts: 379 Forumite
    Microsoft antispyware isn't that good. Its got some nice features and tools, but is fairly poor at actually finding spyware on your system and destroying it, which surely is what its there for! I actually use it in combination with adaware and spybot.
  • wolfman
    wolfman Posts: 3,225 Forumite
    redrez wrote:
    Got the full version on 14 day trial, from https://www.download.com, and seems to be pretty good. Not sure if its worth the money, could be cheaper out there. :confused:

    It's ok for £14. £10 would be nice, any cheaper than that and you may as well be talking freeware like AdAware and SpyBot.
    "Boonowa tweepi, ha, ha."
  • Mr_Skint_2
    Mr_Skint_2 Posts: 5,183 Forumite
    wolfman wrote:
    Pc Pro have just done a group review. Quite interesting results.

    http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/133/anti-spyware/products.html

    Spybot and AdAware don't do too well. Counterspy (which a friend uses) does well and I've been impressed with it from what I've seen. Not too bad for £14 either.

    This should also be of help http://www.download.com/Antivirus/3150-2239_4-0.html
  • 2ax
    2ax Posts: 645 Forumite
    I ran CounterSpy. It looks good, with a couple of extra functions to Microsoft Anti-spyware. The full scan probably took longer (I went away after 20 minutes) and it found one cookie it didn't like, which I could have removed anyway, so I can see myself not spending in 2 weeks time.

    I hardly ever find a problem - I think SpywareBlaster blocks a lot of things in the first place - surprised it wasn't mentioned in the various articles.
  • wolfman
    wolfman Posts: 3,225 Forumite
    Yeah to be honest if you're careful and know what you're doing, you shouldn't suffer from spyware. SpyBot and AdAware are fine if you have a good setup, although having said that they do seem to be in decline in terms of performance.

    Counterspy is still a very good product. For purchased software I'd put it up there with Acronis TrueImage and SyncBackSE. A worthy investment should you choose to do so.
    "Boonowa tweepi, ha, ha."
  • djohn2002uk
    djohn2002uk Posts: 2,323 Forumite
    2ax wrote:
    I hardly ever find a problem - I think SpywareBlaster blocks a lot of things in the first place - surprised it wasn't mentioned in the various articles.

    I have run both SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard for about a year now and never get any Spyware/Adware. Just the odd cookie now and then.
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