Spybot Search & Destroy

Spybot S & D is an excellent product. It ranks right up there with Ad-Aware as a Best Pick in terms of its ability to find and remove spyware and adware from an infected system. Spybot S & D is available for free which also means that no support is provided, however the product is stable and performs its function solidly. The primary difference between Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware Professional is that Spybot S & D does not proactively monitor and block spyware or adware threats.

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.

Spybot-S&D can also clean usage tracks, an interesting function if you share your computer with other users and don't want them to see what you have been working on. And for professional users, Spybot-S&D allows you to fix some registry inconsistencies and extended reports.