What’s the best anti spyware on-demand scanner that is free and has the ability to run the on-demand scanner automatically on a schedule? I have tried Spybot S & D but have not tried some of the other well known ones. I want to make sure it works well in conjunction with Avast.
Thanks everyone for the good suggestions and thoughts.
In looking at each of those suggested, it looks like to me it comes down to either Spybot S&D or Spyware Terminator since those seem to be the only 2 that have a free version that have an on-demand scanner that can be set to run automatically and have a feature in the free version that enables it to update automatically. (I recognize that some of the others like MBAM and Superantispyware have these features in the paid version.)
So, my next question is, of these two - Spybot S&D and Spyware Terminator - which is going to do the better job of protecting me?
You can have both. The resident of Spybot is not as good as SpywareTerminator, but it has immunization and SpywareTerminator doesn’t.
If you want to choose one, ST.
avast! has it’s own real-time (on access) antispyware built into it’s single engine antivirus. According to scans by SAS, mbam & AVG AS, it is doing an excellent job protecting my computers. I have no spyware nor malware on my machines. 8)
Thanks all for the additional info. I’m trying Spyware Teminator. Nice program with good user interface. I did notice that the resident protection is not an available option for 64bit platforms.
This and a post above got me thinking some more. Given that Avast’s built-in anti-spyware scanners - both on demand and resident - are so good in the various independent tests, is a separate anti-spyware really necessary?
This and a post above got me thinking some more. Given that Avast's built-in anti-spyware scanners - both on demand and resident - are so good in the various independent tests, is a separate anti-spyware really necessary?
Only if you're unfortunate enough to get something that Avast can't catch. ;D
I just use demand scanners (SAS and MBAM) for the occasional second opinion. Nothing wrong with a bit of hardening and immunizing, too, such as disabling scripting in browsers, or using a Hostsfile, for example, and keeping Java and Flash up to date. Keeping stuff up to date goes a long way toward patching vulnerabilities.
You're a little bit limited as to what freewares can be run on 64bit systems, as of now, anyway.
Short answer, yes.
Longer answer, yes because they are ‘specialist’ anti-spyware tools and this includes searching the registry during on-demand scans for malware entries in the registry. avast! anti-spyware detection/functionality is different in that if it detects a spyware file it will check the registry for associated with that file, but it doesn’t do a registry scan as a part of its on-demand scan.
So effectively it is more a resident anti-spyware functionality and you only have to check my signature on my thought to your question ;D
Add to that a multi application approach to security, provided those applications are complimentary and don’t clash/conflict.