Recommended Antispyware Software

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Antispyware is essential for any computer connected to the Internet. It is every bit as important as antivirus. Spyware slows your computer and your Internet connection down to a crawl and sometimes to the point where you can't boot. Spyware has matured enough that it is very clever about getting past your computer's defenses and you need equally sophisticated defenses.

Antispyware needs to be similar to antivirus by having multiple lines of defense:

• A file scanner that seeks out spyware already installed. A smart scan (fast) and thorough scan (slow) should be selectable. You can use as many scanners as you like - they don' t tend to interfere with each other.
• An immunization method to prevent spyware from being installed. Usually this involves setting portions of your registry to read-only. Some spyware gets around it anyway.
• A real-time memory-resident scanner to catch installations as they occur. Only install one of these as they could step on each other and cause problems.
• A backup and restore to be able to recover from an ugly spyware incident.

Some antispyware programs exaggerate the threat of cookies or most-recently-used (MRU) entries. These are generally harmless, but it doesn't hurt anything to delete them. These shouldn't get red flags, more like a yawn would suffice.

These are a few antispyware products that we recommend:

Free Antispyware

Windows Defender (new version December 2006). Microsoft has released version 1593 of their antispyware program formerly known as Microsoft Antispyware. Beta 2 expires December 31, so you need to get the update. Windows Defender will be a standard part of the next version of Windows called Vista.  This program is much more refined than the free programs below and has improved over beta 2. The interface is intuitive and it has automatic updates that is lacking in the free programs. In this version, automatic updates are incorporated into Microsoft Update (the newer version of Windows update), so you need to have automatic updates turned on to receive updates for Windows Defender.  This does not work in some corporate environments that use SMS. There is a manual update option if your Microsoft Update is not turned on. Now the updates have been refined to be smaller when possible.

Scheduled scans are built in and it has all of the required defense elements listed above. As a bonus, it doesn't bother scanning for cookies or MRUs. If you install this program, you should not install Spyware Blaster or Spyware Guard. It will not interfere with other scanners, though. Try Windows Defender.  US Netizen Recommended

How does it cost? It will always be free to users with legitimate Windows licenses and will be included with Windows Vista, the next version of Windows. They are aggressive about checking your copy of Windows to ensure that it's genuine.

AdAware SE Personal. Another good scanner with a smart scan option that scans in less than five minutes. Again, no option for automatic updates or a scheduled scan. This one is free with the option to upgrade to the pay version, but they don't nag you. No immunization options. No scheduling options. If it can't clean a process, it will ask to run at next boot. Overall, a good program for scanning. Get AdAware. US Netizen Recommended

Spyware Blaster. This is a free immunizer that prevents spyware from being installed. Simple to use and is regularly updated. Use this in conjunction with a scanner. Get Spyware Blaster. US Netizen Recommended

Spyware Guard. This is a free real-time-memory resident scanner. Get Spyware Guard. US Netizen Recommended

We recommend installing all four of the above products. These will give you good protection for free with no nagging to upgrade.

SpyBot Search and Destroy. A good scanner that is very thorough. It lacks a smart scan, so it is always slow. The immunization is simple, so use it. The memory-resident Tea Timer is not installed by default. If this is your only antispyware, install Tea Timer. There is no option for automatic updates. A scheduled scan can be set in Windows Scheduler. This can be set to run on your next Windows boot, but the option is buried in the settings. Updates are surprisingly rare. This program is free to use, but donations are recommended. Get SpyBot S&D. Update: no longer recommended. This program is not updated like it used to be.

Industrial Strength Antispyware

Another option is paid antispyware. if you don't have the patience for free software or your computer is seriously infected, you need industrial strength software that you just can't get for free. Visit this page for a very detailed rundown on all the good and the really bad antispyware programs. Many programs are horrible and are responsible for those popups that tell you you are infected. Don't be fooled by advertisements masquerading as Windows alerts!

To save a bunch of time, we have distilled the paid choices down to out top pick: Webroot SpySweeper.

Webroot Spy Sweeper. This program has all the elements of good antispyware software: deep scanning, memory-resident processes, automatic updates. Not too CPU intensive when it's just protecting and not in deep scan mode. This is the most thorough scanner around and it does not install spyware itself. It has the seal of approval from a few reputable magazines as well. If you install this program, you should not install Spyware Blaster or Spyware Guard. Reviewed by PC Magazine in 2006 and touted as "Spy Sweeper is the best antispyware we've seen." If you buy an antispyware program, SpySweeper is the one. Take the free trial of course before you buy. US Netizen Recommended

What About Earthlink Anti-Spyware Protection? This program is included free with a $21.99/month subscription to Earthlink. Actually, this is a rebranded version of Aluria Anti-Spyware. This was also reviewed in 2006 by PC Magazine and was the worst of the bunch. The review stated "In testing, Aluria Anti-Spyware wasn't effective at removing or blocking keyloggers, though it did detect two of the six. When installed on our infested systems, it found two-thirds of the sample spyware but succeeded in removing less than half of those." We tested the Earthlink Free Spyware Scan and found that it did not actually scan our computer, but falsely reported finding five spyware programs. It reported our computer being infected with 008RemoteKeylogger, CoolWebSearch, IST.XXXToolbar, ISearch, and PSGuard.

We carefully looked for each of the five spyware programs and none were present. Of course, they offered to sell us the Protection Control Center for $48/year to remove these fictitious spyware programs. This is quite deceptive advertising by Earthlink, but they didn't create the software, they just licensed it from Aluria. When we ran the Aluria Scanner, it found three fictitious spyware programs and offered to sell us Aluria Anti-Spyware at $29.95 to remove them..

Based on our observations, we recommend staying away from anything created by Aluria including Earthlink Anti-Spyware Protection.

What about AOL Spyware Protection? This program is a rebranded version of Webroot Spy Sweeper. So, for $23.95/month, you get to use Spy Sweeper which would otherwise cost you $29.95/year.

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