Question for DavidR about SuperAntiSpyware

General Topics
1

I noticed in your signature that you use this. Do you use the Free or Paid for version. Do you believe it does as well as Webroot SpySweeper? Thank you for any comments. Linda

2

I’m not DavidR but I also use SAS I did make a comment about something similar a while back http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=31040.0

I have the free version and I use it quite a lot

3

I used to use Webroot SpySweeper, it was available free from my previous ISP (Verizon DSL). It was heavy on resources & never found anything on my 'puter. At that time I didn’t use SuperAntiSpyware.

I went to using Windows Defender, AVG AS & SuperAntiSpyware Free. SAS Free & AVG AS would find things WD would miss.

I now use Spyware Terminator. SAS Free & AVG AS Free never find anything. ST does a good job.

If you want to try Spyware Terminator (it’s free), set scheduled scans to “never”, they are annoying. I recommend doing on-demand scans with SAS Free. Only use ST for real-time spyware protection.

If you decide to use SuperAntiSpyware Pro, don’t use ST. I recommend only one real-time anti-spyware program. SuperAntiSpyware Pro is probably better than ST.

4

I use the free on-demand version of SAS.

I haven’t used spysweeper, but I did consider it or counterspy as a resident anti-spyware even though they were paid options (certainly for me). My research also showed the heavy resource use of spysweeper, counterspy wasn’t so high a resource hog, a friend uses it and he thinks it is good. I can’t recall which but one of those two has a huge signature file (100MB I believe), I just can’t see how that is manageable and may account for heavy resource use.

I did try SpywareTerminator as a resident anti-spyware some time ago and didn’t like the interface, but resource use seemed OK on my system.

In the end I have decided not to have resident anti-spyware and just go for regular on-demand scans with SAS, having uninstalled avg-as not too long ago. The reason I dropped the resident AS option is because of my back-up and recovery strategy, being able to recover from any possible infection that I might get (in about 20 minutes) as unlikely as that might be. That option is good for me but may not be good for other users.

5

Webroot SpySweeper seems heavy on resources in my very old tests.
I have on-demand protection of SuperAntiSpyware Free, AVGas, Spyware Terminator.
I have but rarely use Ad-aware, never find anything…
Resident protection of Windows Defender and TeaTimer.

6

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have until Feb. 08 to make up my mind. Thanks again

7

Your welcome, you have plenty of food for though now, good hunting.