Spyware Doctor Worth $10 More Then CounterSpy?

[novak]

Hi, I'm going to reinstall windows and am going to buy a Spyware program. I always hear rave about Counterspy and it's reviewed al the time in PC World Magazine. Spyware doctor is also an amazing program too. Spyware doctor costs $30 while Counterspy only costs $20. Can anyone that has used both programs or can help me out, Is Spyware Doctor worth the extra $10? Does it have more features then Counterspy? There both amazing programs and either one will be great to have. Thanks

 

[pscowboy]

Pest Patrol (Computer Associates) for $30 beats both of them hands down.

Speaking from personal experience.

 

[monkeyman12]

I agree, Pest Patrol or Spy Sweeper (both $30) dollars beats either of the two you mentioned.

 

[georgebeee]

you pay for spyware programs?

 

[steve_sa]

I tried quite a few. My favorite (which I purchased) Spy Sweeper. I found the freeware ones lacking.

 

[pscowboy]

Because I respect steve_sa's views, I decided to try Spy Sweeper.

I am now in accordance with him. Spy Sweeper is better than Pest Patrol. Very user friendly; very copious in its' work; and full reports with easy to see results. Highly recommended!

 

[steve_sa]

Thanks, pscowboy!

I got on their mailing list, and received a promotional offer for $10 off, so if you don't buy, you can wait for that. I don't know if they will repeat or not, but that was nice.

 

[pscowboy]

Already bought; and opted for the two years @ $39.

 

[steve_sa]

That's a good deal, since even with discount, it costs $20 for one year. So factoring low interest rates, you got the same deal.

 

[georgebeee]

I run the yahoo toolbar with anti-spy, spyware doctor and of course lavasoft's ad-aware.

however, since I switched browsers to firefox I almost never find any spyware on my pc at all.

I tried a number of those freeware applications earlier, but a number of them removed programs that caused my pc problems. and that was when I was using netscape. but with firefox running it doesn't matter what I'm doing with my browser I almost NEVER pick up even 1 tracking cookie, etc.

it seems to me spyware is simply another method the industry is using to scrape nickels out of your wallet into theirs, and I refuse to go along with it if I have any choice

 

[Jake_Barnes]

A good reference source for legit vs bogus apps is Eric's Howes' Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites

 

[steve_sa]

Already bought; and opted for the two years @ $39.

There is a problem when sweeper is installed where IE becomes very slow. If you see that, make sure to upgrade to the latest sweeper s/w version. Took me 2 hours to figure this baby out.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I have used most of the major anti-spyware programs (currently have Pest Patrol, CounterSpy, Spy Sweeper, as well as Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware SE, SpywareBlaster, custom HOSTS file, custom blocking lists, among others).

I have found that Spy Sweeper can be a greater drag on the system, therefore, I keep it current but "inactive" and fire it up as a scanner only. My experience has been that when new versions come out, they are often buggy and it's best to wait a week or so for the revised builds that fix the problems.

With that said, you can always get the latest version/build from Webroot by going to this site and requesting the latest and greatest: Spy Sweeper. Of course you will need your registration information - ie, email address you used originally to register the product. Webroot will email you a link to the latest build in minutes.

Hope this helps.

 

[pscowboy]

That's a good tip. Keep any of them inactive. Only use them as scanners. That's my protocol with my customers.

 

[Codename46]

The best thing to do is provide preventive maintenance. Thats why I use spywareblaster and now I'm totally spyware free and have been for 2 years.

PC Magazine rated Spyware Doctor over Spy Sweeper, but their tests were pretty biased and the spyware sample was pretty low in count. Same with PC World's test. Only 72 spyware files. I'm so pissed off that I'm purposely using sites like SpywareGuide and databases like Spybot's in-program list of products to create the largest test sample of spyware in the universe.

My advice is to get a free basic scanner and Google all the .exe processes you find in Task Manager. Then use Hijackthis and manually kill the buggers.

However if I were to incorporate some kind of commercial scanner I would definitely use CounterSpy. Resident protection hardly takes any resources for me, it doesn't slow down performance (unlike Norton Internet Security, which, IMHO, is a train wreck), and its the only one to remove Sony's Rootkit.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Eric Howe put out this list ... it's an excellent resource and reference:

Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites

It shows the "good" apps and those that are crap. This guy is an industry opinion leader. He updates that list frequently.

If you use IE, SpywareBlaster is cool, but since it only sets kill bits, it not much help with Active X Free Firefox and Opera, etc. But if you use IE, it's essential.