The April 2005 issue of PC World Magazine features an article that is centered around a comparison of ten antispyware programs. CounterSpy and Spy Sweeper led the field in terms of real-time protection and other features. Spybot S&D had the third-best results. The newly acquired AntiSpyware by Microsoft was not included in the comparisons, but was tested nonetheless. Its signatures were the most up-to-date, so it wouldn't have been a fair comparison. This tells me that AntiSpyware comes highly regarded by the PC World author.
One thing to note is that Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy was in a partnership with Giant, the former owner of Microsoft's AntiSpyware. Prior to the change in ownership, a legal agreement between Giant and Sunbelt has resulted in Windows Updates not only updating AntiSpyware, but also CounterSpy. I got this info from the Sunbelt Software website.
Have any of you tried CounterSpy, and what do you think of it? Also, what is your opinion of Microsoft's AntiSpyware?
I myself am currently evaluating this product to see if it is worth my $$$. The pricing actually doesn't seem to be outrageous either. $20 for the first year of update subscriptions, then $9.98 for each additional year of updates. Not a bad deal.
Up till now, I've been using Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spybot S&D 1.3, Spyware Blaster 3.3, and Microsoft AntiSpyware. Additionally, I use Mozilla's Firefox as my default browser and refrain from the "too-good-to-be-true" offers (from websites) that almost always end up placing all sorts of adware/spyware on your computer. Luckily for me, those "FREE" games you play online do not tempt me one bit, so that's another reason my computers rarely ever see spyware.