Spy Bot and Ad-Aware 2007 not that good after all?

After reading these articles on PC I am not so confident that system is as safe as I thought. (I use a combinations of Spybot, Ad-aware 2007, AVG, Ccleaner)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2261200,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2255857,00.asp

Spybot received a 1.5 out of 5 and Ad-aware received a 2 out of 5.

It seems as if these programs are not as good as the used to be. After reading some of the other threads they are still listed under best free programs. Is this still true and are there any better free programs out there?

 

Of course PC mag is going to put the commercial products ahead of the Free ones.

Both together works Ok for me. I mainly use Spybot for TeaTimer which is great at preventing a lot of spyware in the first place.

 

uummm

i think spyware doctor and webroot have been at the top or near the top for quite awhile

 

I use spysweeper. I dont think anything can come close to it.

 

uhh i hate tea timer lol. everytime i try and do anything, ie msconfig i get like 3 popups. i guess it's just doing its job, but it just annoys me. but i use spybot, adaware, avast, spyware blaster, and i guess windows defender. i rarely run them tho. my computers been running really good so i don't bother, plus when ever i do run them they find nothing.

 

Yea I agree, tea timer can get excessively annoying. Is spywear blaster a free program?

 

Yes. Spyware Blaster is a free program, but remember, it doesn't work like traditional spyware removing programs.

Open it up before browsing, and it supposedly prevents most spyware from entering your computer.

 

I feel like the free programs (Ad-Aware/Spybot) just haven't been able to keep up performance wise. I would switch to them in a heartbeat if their detection improved.

 

IMO, Ad-Aware 2007 isn't as good as the previous SE Personal version, which was what I was using. But now since they've discontinued support for it, I just uninstalled Lavasoft all together. I'm only using SpywareBlaster and Windows Defender at the moment. Spybot still seems to be doing alright, though.

 

I don't use either of those programs anymore. I use a-squared free and Antivir. Those two didn't do anything for me, then again, i practice safe internet browsing.

 

AVG free + Windows defender is the working combo for me.

 

I have not heard of a-squared, how is it?

Would you guys recommend installing Windows defender? I either hear good things about it, or really bad things...

 

Personally I've disabled Windows Defender. It never seemed to detect anything and it just hogged system resources.

 

It's very good, uses some more resources than spybot but i think it may do so for a more powerful spyware search.

 

Nope.

Same for me.

 

safe browsing and mcafee total security for me.

 

The #1 protection tool

 

Personally, Spysweeper has been pretty good to me. I don't have a problem paying the yearly subscription for it.

 

SpywareBlaster doesn't have to be open when you browse. It adds specific sites and domains to the restricted zone of your browser. Run, update, close.

The spyware/malware technology has advanced at an alarming rate. I just don't think it's possible for them to keep up with the better paid programs (SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor, CounterSpy), who have the funding to throw more people at the problem.

I did a test of 7 antispyware apps, you can see the results using the link in my signature. I WAS NOT impressed with adaware or spybot at that time, and I'm sure it hasn't improved much since then. I would definitely place Windows Defender above them. On a side note: Windows Defender and CounterSpy actually started out as the same program, of course MS didn't give it the attention the good folks at Sunbelt did. The result is CounterSpy being a much better app than Windows Defender.

Just my .02

 

Hi.

have you tried " super anti spyware", free version

I have been using it on xp for a couple of years seems good!

regards

John.

 

SuperAntiSpyware has my vote

 

It seemed to me in earlier versions at least Tea Timer conflicted with getting Windows updates among other things. From what I understand Comodo's Defense+ have virtually the same function without any conflicts. Still I use Spybot to run manual scans from time to time and use their advanced mode tools, especially to disable start up programs.

I dumped Adaware 2007 (liked se better) as it was only detecting cookies and I use CCleaner to clear them.

 

Anyone know what the latest version of Spyware Doctor via Google Pack is?

 

I had been using Ad-aware SE. Haven't been using 07 long enough to decide.
I also use Avast, CCleaner, Advance Windows Care(daily) and Iobit SmartDefrag.
Never had any problems.
I also use Firefox with NoScript.

I just set a friends computer up with these programs. After running them they had cleaned 3 GB's of trash off of his computer. He's only had his computer(first one) for 6 months and didn't understand how to keep it clean.

 

The newest version of Ad-aware sucks.

I still stand by Spybots Tea timer. Works great