Antispyware/Adware Review 2007

Here is a brief peep into the salient features of three top antispyware/adware programs available in the market today.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 5.0

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 5.0 is the best anti-spyware tool at present. Best performance coupled with excellent features and support makes it the best buy in the league.

Interestingly, in trials, it caught a major percentage of adware than spyware. But still, this statistics is able to put it ahead of other popular anti-spyware/adware softwares. Also, the spyware doctor has successfully found out additions made to the HKLM and HKCU Run registry, and prevented adware/spyware from changing IE start and search pages. However, in trials, it had failed to detect changes made to the Hosts file, something spyware does so in common in order to direct the browser to a malicious webpage. Other features include blacklist-based antiphishing protection and 24 hr customer support.

The interface is user-friendly, and installation is quite easy too. If it has any downside, then it is the Spyware Doctor 5.0’s tendency to brand friendly cookies as malicious. The Spyware Doctor 5.0 costs $30. For an additional $10, it also offers antivirus protection.

Grisoft AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5

In tests, Grisoft AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 performed very well, but it has failed to detect newer threats on the basis of their behavior. In that sense, it is less intelligent.

The Grisoft AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5, in trials, has caught hold of almost all spyware, adware, both active and inactive, and keyloggers, bank-related spyware programs, and rootkits. However, it had failed to detect additions to HKLM Run keys.

On the downside, it does not offer antiphishing protection, and there is no POP3, IMAP, and SMTP scanning either to block email perpetuated spyware threats. Also, there is no option to set a system restore point should any useful file gets deleted during cleaning.

On the user front, it has a user friendly interface, backed by efficient customer support.

Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5

Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5 faltered a bit from its 5.0 version in that it had struggled to remove spyware and adware in trials even though it detected them promptly. Its detection of inactive rootkits and password stealing spyware in tests was not up to the mark either.
However, the Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5 had successfully detected additions to HKLM and HKCU Run keys, changes to internet explorer search and start pages, and Hosts file.

On to its other features, the Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5 provides a one-click access to system scan and its 12 Shields feature is not only easy to set up, but also provides real time protection for monitoring browsers, e-mail attachments, startup programs, network connections, and the other system areas that are prone to spyware/adware offences.

On the downside, the Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5 had flagged some harmless cookies as malicious. But, then this issue is present in most of the anti-spyware programs these days.

The installation is quite easy, so is the simplicity of using the interface.

The other anti-spyware/adware tools that are worth trying out include the Microsoft Windows Defender 1.1 and Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2007 Plus 7.0 (XP version).