The goal of antispyware software is extremely simple. If any kind of malicious software is present on the system, the antispyware app should remove every trace. And if the system is clean, the app should prevent malicious software from installing. Simple. The hard part is making it happen.
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The term spyware is actually a catch-all for a variety of nonvirus malicious software (malware, for short). Trojan horse programs masquerade as something useful—games, screen savers, utilities—but actually have their own sneaky agenda. One especially pernicious type of Trojan pretends to be an antispyware utility. These rogue antispyware programs tend to be alarmist, reporting tons of threats and offering to remove them—for a price. The term adware refers to programs that display ads on your computer (independent of the built-in banner ads on Web pages). Spyware literally spies on you, gathering personal information and sending it to the lair of its evil creator. Keyloggers specifically records all the keys you type, thereby capturing passwords and other sensitive info. Some of these may use rootkit technology to escape detection. A good antispyware program will handle all of these overlapping threat categories.
To test the efficacy of antispyware products, I challenge them to clean up a collection of virtual machines preinfested with known malware of all the types mentioned above. When they're finished, I review their success by checking my own list of known files and Registry traces associated with each threat. If they wipe out every executable file they get full credit, even if dozens or hundreds of data files and Registry items remain. If they make the attempt but leave executable files behind, they get only half credit. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.5 cleans up a system more thoroughly than any other product I've tested: It wiped out every trace of many threats and left just an item or two of others.
I also load each antispyware product on a pristine virtual machine and check how well its real-time protection manages to prevent installation of the same set of malware samples. The better products, including Spyware Doctor and Webroot AntiVirus with Antispyware and Firewall, prevent the malicious software from even being downloaded. When presented with a folder full of malware samples, they delete most of them on sight. In many cases I'm left with just one or two samples to test, so I repeat the test using variants of the malware installers that I created myself, renaming each sample, modifying nonexecutable bytes, and appending null bytes to change the file size. And again, the best products aren't fooled by this minimal disguise.
Of course many people rely on their full security suite for protection against spyware and viruses. Many of these are quite effective: Check our Security Suites 2008 roundup for details. The difference is that these suites include lots of other stuff you may or may not feel you need, including (but not limited to) antispam, parental controls, firewalls—even backup and system-tuning utilities. You may not have children, or your ISP may provide your antispam, or you may simply prefer à la carte security. If you choose to build your own security system using best-of-breed software in different areas, you certainly won't go wrong with our Editors' Choice, Spyware Doctor. But there many other choices available to you—some well worth considering, and some to be avoided at all costs—even at no cost. Below are quick summaries of my full-length reviews of nine antispyware apps. As always, click the link to read more about each application.
The new version of Ad-Aware is faster and prettier, but the retooled version of this ground-breaking antispyware app can't handle the worst spyware threats lying in wait for you on the Internet.
CounterSpy V2 ranks just below the best standalone antispyware apps. It has trouble with badly infested systems but does a good job of keeping healthy systems clean.
GarbageClean has marginally improved its malware removal in version 3.0, but the program still stinks--and now it's not even free.
Spyware Doctor is our go-to app when it comes to wiping your system clean of malicious software. Treating your malware infestation with Spyware Doctor can take time and effort, but the end result is a near-total recovery for your PC.
Spyware Terminator is yet another app that doesn't live up to its tough name. While this free solution warns about phishing Web sites and other dangerous sites, it tested poorly on both malware removal and malware blocking.
When you hear the name STOPzilla, you'd expect a 50-foot tall spyware-destroying behemoth. What you get is an app that costs more than the best standalone antispyware programs yet does less.
SUPERAntiSpyware costs the same as the top standalone antispyware product yet doesn't remove malware as well, and it's worse at protecting a clean system. It's nimble and doesn't hog resources, but it has to get tougher against the bad guys.
SpyEraser 2 doesn't wildly kill off other programs at random, as its predecessor did, but it's still terrible at blocking and removing malware.
Webroot's antivirus and antispyware solution now includes a firewall along with a brand-new (and very long) name. The program still offers solid virus/spyware protection but no substantial improvements compared with the previous version.
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