MS AntiSpyware vs Ad-Aware vs SpyBot

[evo0o]

In the end, for someone like me, the subscription fee is the determining factor. I'll stick with the current free alternatives.

585258590[/snapback]

Exactly.

[Cloud Geek]

lavasofts ad-aware is for adware and finds adware that ms anti spyware can't find

but ms anti spyware is great compared to spybot

thats my opinion

[altezza Veteran]

I guess Ad-aware and Spybot is still tad better than MS Antispyware. A good effort by MS but still needs bit of work to do.

[JustGeorge]

I like MS Antispyware alot, but I also Ad-aware too. In Ad-aware's defense, you will never meet a nicer, more helpful community than over at the Lavasoft forums. They will break their damn backs to help someone.

[Son of Hook]

Yeah good read.

What's funny is the people I forced to use firefox don't ever get spyware anymore. What a tool huh. The others use IE and still get dozens of spyware that they love to remove with GIANT or whichever. That suits me fine :D

585256738[/snapback]

What's even funnier is that I use IE most of the time, and I've never gotten any spyware/adware on my comp. But then again, I'm not some mindless moron that clicks "Yes" or "Ok" to every dialog box with a choice.

After many years, I can't think of one instance where I had to remove spyware from any of my 'puters.

[JustGeorge]

I know this lady at work that has so many damn toolbars installed, you can barely see whats on webpages :)

Yahoo

Google

My websearch

Viewpoint

...And she claims she needs them all!

[L3thal Veteran]

...And she claims she needs them all!

585259697[/snapback]

:laugh: :pinch:

[kainashi]

^ interesting info kanashi, mind telling us where u heard that? on neowin?

585257877[/snapback]

is there really any reason for them to charge? i don't really think so. i don't see the point to charging for it either.

[Mastertech]

What's even funnier is that I use IE most of the time, and I've never gotten any spyware/adware on my comp. But then again, I'm not some mindless moron that clicks "Yes" or "Ok" to every dialog box with a choice.

This is the truth. I give specific advice in my Guide on how to prevent Spyware. Once completed you will get nothing more then Cookies with IE, unless of course you like to click on ads. ;)

[Shannon]

When I ran Microsoft's AntiSpyware, it detected a whole 3 threats (which were all harmless false positivies anyway). I then ran Ad-aware and it's results showed 13. I must admit they were all tracing cookies, but why doesn't AntiSpyware search for them? Apart from AntiSpyware's resedential protection and interface, I can't find anything good about it.

I'll stick with Ad-aware thanks. ;)

[Hekx]

..if you chose to use Microsoft AntiSpyware as your spyware removal tool, you will still need to run other tools such as Ad-Aware and SpyBot.

That to me is a problem, it would be nice if there were a combined version or simply only one spyware removal tool being fundemental on Windows. At the moment, I only use Spybot, but common sense and caution also plays apart. ;)

[Mastertech]

I must admit they were all tracing cookies, but why doesn't AntiSpyware search for them?

This is a good point I forgot to mention, for whatever reason Microsoft disabled its ability to search for cookies.

[Slimy]

some1 mentioned something about ms mentioning that cookies were too important with certain sites

[DoNuTs]

I'd call it MS AntiSpyware + Ad-Aware + SpyBot = (Y)

[JustGeorge]

They could just flag the cookies from known scum sites? I think thats a retarded reason not to support cookie deletion. Ad-aware and spybot do daily and I've yet to loase an important cookie.

[Slimy]

agreed, but i don't mind much considering ccleaner can do this job, even better

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

I prefer Ad-aware.....it finds everything

585256526[/snapback]

id be carefull with just that. i have found stuff on my pc with spybot and blaster even after adaware gave me a clean scan.

[Frank]

I'm not complaining and it wasn't posted by one person, i'm just saying that the credit goes to GIANT and not ms as ms only did some renaming and icon changes

585256595[/snapback]

Giant is now owned by Microsoft (I know you already relise this) so in essense giving Kudos to Giant is the same as giving kudos to Microsoft.

If it has tons of bugs, then how come I used it on 5 different computers without finding a single one?

585256735[/snapback]

If Internet Explorer and Windows XP has many bugs, why don't I see them on any machine I install Windows XP to?

Funny how MS spyware stuff isn't free, considering it's MS's fault to begin with. They provide the code, which allows others to manipulate it harming us, then MS charges us to correct that harm. :wacko: Sound like a maffia or what?

585257720[/snapback]

I don't completly agree with this. If a copany like Gator bought Giant then yes it would be like the mafia. Since Microsoft doesn't make spyware, it is a completly different story.

In the end, for someone like me, the subscription fee is the determining factor. I'll stick with the current free alternatives.

585258590[/snapback]

I agree.

What's even funnier is that I use IE most of the time, and I've never gotten any spyware/adware on my comp.  But then again, I'm not some mindless moron that clicks "Yes" or "Ok" to every dialog box with a choice. 

After many years, I can't think of one instance where I had to remove spyware from any of my 'puters.

585259679[/snapback]

I agree 100%. After SP2 and one smapp tweak to Internet Settings, I never get any spyware on my machine.

[AlphaPrime]

Does anyone know how many spyware signatures Microsoft (GIANT) AntiSpyware searches for?

SpyBot (Immunize) - 2,337

SpywareBlaster (Immunize) - 3,348

SpyBot - 25,936

Ad-Aware SE - 36,484

SpySweeper - 45,069

Microsoft AntiSpyware - ?

I've found SpySweeper to be the best for me. Although, once I started using Firefox, I haven't had any spyware.

[yisman]

I prefer Ad-aware.....it finds everything

585256526[/snapback]

Read the article.

BTW, I use Ad-aware SE, Spybot, MS, Spyware Blaster, and Spyware Doctor. I also used Spy Sweeper, but its trial version expired, so I just uninstalled it (not paying them $30). I use all the free versions which work well, basically.

Edited January 10, 2005 by yisman

[yisman]

MS Antispyware is ok but it produces false positives, similiar to Pest Patrol. I suspect the tester did not use the latest Beta of Spybot v1.4 B2 with all the latest updates? Also the actual number of Spyware infections a program detects can be misleading since some group them together while others count every single file and registry key. Spybot groups all the files and registry keys for one infection, so its detection rate looks lower then it is. The other thing is how MS Antispyware incorrectly labels remote connect software and certain P2P programs as spyware. This artificially inflates the detection results.

A real test would require better methods. Every system I ran this on that had Ad-aware v1.05 SE and Spybot v1.4 B2 both fully updated, MS Antispyware did not find any new infections. In one or two cases it found a left over registry key or two from files that were removed. Similar to how uninstalled applications leave registry entries behind. Thus the system was not infected but MS Antispyware said it was. These sort of false positives can produce unnecessary panic.

The big False Positive it found on all machines is "Search Squire". It was identifying the Immunized registry entry Spybot made as a Search Squire infection. Not good. It looks like this needs some more work.

585258679[/snapback]

I have the fully updated versions of Adaware SE and Spybot (I search for updates several times a week), and MS Antispyware still found several things. I also have Spyware Blaster.

The problem is that I mostly use IE, not Firefox.

[yisman]

I know this lady at work that has so many damn toolbars installed, you can barely see whats on webpages :)

Yahoo

Google

My websearch

Viewpoint

...And she claims she needs them all!

585259697[/snapback]

:laugh:

A lot of them contain spyware/ad-ware or pseudo-spyware/adware themselves. Mywebsearch definitely does. Not so familiar with Viewpoint. I don't think Yahoo does, but there is no reason to use their toolbar. I just use the Google toolbar, and I'm happy. It doesn't come with attached crap, either.

[PseudoRandomDragon]

If Internet Explorer and Windows XP has many bugs, why don't I see them on any machine I install Windows XP to?

585265568[/snapback]

Because you are used to them? :D

[saxondale.]

Its not fair to MS, its still in the beta stage so you cant compare, ad aware and spybot have been around much longer and are actually the final thing, MS have just only released there first beta...

[dotRoot]

Funny how MS spyware stuff isn't free, considering it's MS's fault to begin with. They provide the code, which allows others to manipulate it harming us, then MS charges us to correct that harm. :wacko: Sound like a maffia or what?

585257720[/snapback]

The more security you have, the less control you can have. But then again the only 'faulty' code for spyware was really just ActiveX, which you can easily turn off. But you shouldn't have to, I understand. However for an ActiveX to execute you still have to give it permission, and that's the user's fault not MS'.

How would MS fix spyware anyway? Make it so only companies that go through some sort of checkpoint of MS can install on your machine? Then everyone would complain they are trying to control the market even more and they'd get sued again and then Joe Blow would be mad, because Uber-Ultra-Hamster-Dance Screensaver wouldn't be able to be installed on their system.

Besides if MS supplied it for free, then there'd probably be yet another anti-trust sue frenzy against them.