Do you have a Spyware Removal Program? Which one? [Poll]

There are three programs that are absolutely essential for keeping your PC safe. These are AntiviRus, Firewall and Spyware scanner/removal utility. We have already asked you about your favorite Antivirus software and Firewall tools. So this time we want to find out what is the most popular spyware removal among MakeUseOf users.

And if there are folks who still don’t use any anti-spyware program then they can see what is the highest voted one and hopefully give it a shot. While most spyware are fairly harmless- just tracking cookies that don’t really pose much of a security risk. There are some that perform seriously malicious functions as well.

Please vote ! (You can select up to 2 choices.)

Download Links

If your favorite program is not listed then please tell us about it in comments.

Tagged: anti-adware • spyware

Aibek Esengulov

The guy behind MakeUseOf.com. Follow him and MakeUseOf on Twitter @MakeUseOf. For more details check out MakeUseOf about page.

http://www.softtechreviews.com Alisha

I’m amazed that more people use Ad-Aware and Spybot. For me, those didn’t do the best. I’ve never liked Ad-Aware since years ago, because it was always so slow (taking about an hour or longer to search) and rarely ever found anything. Spybot is okay, but has never found anything except cookies for me. SpywareBlaster is probably a must because it helps prevent.

I prefer Spy Sweeper because it actually works and finds things that most others don’t seem to.

Gregor

Say what? I hope you’re kidding. I mean.. what do you think why is S&D and Ad-aware in front of the others? SpywareBlaster helps you prevent? LOL? Who said S&D and Ad-aware don’t help you prevent? You can always enable/disable “prevention system” which then always run as process?

If you ask me,.. your problem wasn’t in finding the right anti-spyware application, but more NOT clicking the links and opening executables even if you knew you’re bringing crap to your pc. All antispyware is 100% fool-proof… well.. and even that changes
http://makeuseof.com Aibek

I have been using S&D amd Ad-aware for years, never had any problems. They seem to compliment each other quite nicely.

http://www.betterthantherapy.net Mark O’Neill

I used Spybot a few years back and it told me to delete certain things. So I did – and then the computer stopped working!! So it really DID “search and destroy” my computer!!! Ever since then, I have used Ad-Aware and I have had huge success in zapping spyware with it. Granted, I was not impressed with the Ad-Aware 2007 upgrade but it eventually started working OK and ever since then it has been fine.
Darth_Indy

I use both Ad-Aware and Spybot, but I rarely ever actually use them. For one, I only use my XP partition when I have to sync my Zune (Which I bought before I was introduced to Linux). Second, when I did, I was careful with what websites I used and rarely downloaded software.

In any case, I don’t bother any more with my Linux machine.
AZman

The very best protection is SunBelt Software’s CounterSpy… I can’t believe you didn’t include it on your list since it’s consistently rated # 1 by all the industry experts.

http://makeuseof.com Aibek

itâ€™s consistently rated # 1 by all the industry experts.

Really? I didn’t see any. Can you post a couple of links?

http://www.bizhack.net Bizhack

Spyware Doctor is actually free – but only via the Google Pack. I’m an Ad-Aware man myself.

http://makeuseof.com Aibek

Thanks for heads up !

Rajat

I use kaspersky’s internet security… and vista has the windows defender built within itself… so never really needed a third one. though i have used super antispyware and i think it is really good and effective at catching malware…
http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com Mackenzie

AdAware and Spybot S&D are the two I *always* put on Windows computers. Neither gets everything, but together they are a force to be reconned with.

http://makeuseof.com Aibek

Same here.

Ed

Hi, thanks for the Poll. It has been a 18 months since I installed and ran an anti spyware program on my machine. When I found out that spybot was the most popular upon the readers here I decided to try it out; and it only found one malicious entry; a cookie in the internet explorer cache.

I use firefox everyday (8-10hrs per day) and only use IE when the page doesn’t show up correctly in FF. But I usually clean my IE cache every week; spybot just caught me before cleaning it up.

I’m happy that I don’t require any anti-spyware program. What I do is limit the cookies being stored in my FF cache to those that I know and trust; such as forums that I need to be logged in, yahoo, google calendars, etc. Every other site I visit I automatically deny their cookies.

So I believe that I’m “safe” from the common spyware problems, well unless someone here says that its still not enough and would provide some evidence.

Thanks for the great articles here in MUO! more power!
http://www.commanddotcom.com Adam

I use Spybot. Anti-spyware is one app that I don’t see the need to EVER purchase a for-pay copy of.

-Adam
http://kc-think-and-blog.blogspot.com krizcpec

I use spyware terminator.
Joshua

Hmm, Ad-Aware and S&D are still in the list of popular antispyware software, huh? That’s weird, I guess some stains are hard to get rid of.
Really, those two programs aren’t as good as they used to be. They used to be 100% Kickass in the old days, but not anymore.

What suprises me even more, why isn’t SUPERAntiSpyware in the list? This one is widely known as one of the best antispyware solutions out there!
http://pctonic.blogspot.com/ Ashutosh Mishra

I am using the latest version of avast! Home, which has a malware scanner as well. Besides use Windows XP firewall.
This may seem minimal, but I now have a pretty good idea of what’s good and what’s bad on the internet so I can do without full-throttled security.

P.S. You should have mentioned Spyware Terminator, it’s hell of a product for something free (but the irritating HIPS like the one in Comodo firewall is there).
davwar

I use Spyware Terminator (free) as my active component and then Spybot and Ad-Aware for periodic scans on XP. This seems to be an effective combination.

I also enable the TeaTimer in Spybot.
A guy who knows

uh well where do i start?
a; spyware doctor screwed my system months ago
b; ad-aware isn’t
c; spybot is great
d; it’s ‘micROsoft’ the only program that you ‘need’ to roll out the red carpet for problems and cpu guzzling… seriously, it takes only ONE LINE OF CODE to happily bypass it… another genius stroke by the guy’s and gals at micorsoft.
note. any replies i’ll gladly accommodate but not about the line of code
http://www.sophos.net Antivirus

I use a program called Anti-Malware produced by Malewarebytes. It is better than Spybot-S&D because it finds all the same spyware plus any additional malware that Spybot is not designed to find.
jason

i am a tech and have been working for over 15 years and have used Super Antispyware on business systems that would be dificult to just reload windows on…saved me 100′s of hours and lots of headache check it out here there is a free version

http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispyware.html?rid=4644