Spyware
Doctor - free spyware scannerI was interested in Spyware Doctor because
it's rated highly at Download.com. I decided to give it a try even though
I think my system is fairly clean. It will scan your PC and remove
spyware. The version you download is "crippled" and they want you to pay
$30 US to be able to use all the really nice features.
I downloaded and installed SD and the
installation was very easy. No questions or registrations. WinPatrol
noticed that SD set itself up to start with Windows, and also registered
two dll's as Internet Explorer browser helper objects (BHO's). If this
hadn't been antispyware software with good credentials, I would have been
scrambling to kill it off as quickly as I could.
When I ran SD it first asked me if it could
run a full system scan and I allowed it to do that. About 67% of the way
through the scan it really started slowing down and after 2 hours it had
only gotten to 72% so I stopped the scan. SD had detected 42 objects on a
system that I had just previously scanned with Adaware and reported clean.
I examined some of the flagged objects and they appeared to be legitimate
entries as far as I could tell. Before I removed the objects, I scanned my
system with HiJackThis for
a "before" logfile. I removed the flagged objects with SD and then took an
"after" logfile with HiJackThis. I compared the two logfiles and there was
no difference. Apparently SD had flagged 42 objects that really weren't
important enough for HiJackThis to notice them.
Conclusion: I believe Spyware
Doctor is easy to use and good at detecting spyware but it's not going to
replace any of my current detection tools. I had problems with it's
scanning and I don't like seeing disabled features in a free program. I
would recommend it for an occasional scan after your normal scans with Adaware and Spybot
S&D, but I wouldn't buy it for the extra features. Those features
are available in other security tools for free.
Here are the features that
are disabled in this free version:
* OnGuard runs in the background to monitor
and protect your PC from browser infections and tracking cookies
* Immunize your system against more than a thousand known web-browser hijackers (BHO) and ActiveX threats
* Immunize your system against more than a thousand known web-browser hijackers (BHO) and ActiveX threats
Quote from the website - Spyware
Doctor is a multi-award winning spyware removal utility that detects,
removes and protects your PC from thousands of potential spyware, adware,
trojans, keyloggers, spybots and tracking
threats.