Spybot S&D

Spybot Search & Destroy is another excellent free spyware removal program, Spybot S&D offers real time prevention, spyware and adware scanning as well as deep scan options.

While it is hard to look a gift horse in the face it should be noted that Spybot performed poorly in compared with other anti spyware programs (even other free programs). Of course regular readers will know I feel it is important to utilize more than one anti adware/spyware software program. That being said Spybot S&D is a free program and you really can’t go wrong.

In recent spyware tests Spybot did find 80% of active spyware applications, however it feel short in discovering inactive spyware that was installed on a test computer. Spybot also does not offer any protection against rootkits, rootkits are becoming more and more popular with spyware creators so this one one downfall of this software package. Spybot also dropped the ball in the pc “boot process” and start up folder where it did not detect changes after a spyware attack.

On the plus side Spybot does offer email support, quite amazing considering this program is available for free. Other free spyware programs like Ad-Aware don’t offer any support.