Searching for the perfect spyware remover

A look at four highly regarded anti-spyware tools and their effectiveness. / 2004-07-28

At one point, viruses sat at the apex of small business computer annoyances. Depending on how you look at it, they still do; spyware has crept up slowly over the last couple of years to become one of the worst problems haunting productivity. It’s also a virtual hell for home PC users, usually even less able than employees at understanding their systems.

Spyware, sneakware, adware, clutterware: whatever you call it, it’s a problem. For some time now, programmers have been working on solutions to help curb their prevalence. On the job, I’ve seen some so nasty as to block downloads to popular anti-spyware software. Spyware should be classified as a type of virus: clever deception gets them onto your system, and only clever tasks can remove them.

This article looks at four of the more popular spyware removing products. For this rigorous review, they needed to be both heavily downloaded and positively reviewed (measured using download.com’s statistics). They needed to have a full free version (or at least a demo). I also wanted to review software that I or co-workers used frequently. The chosen products were: Ad-aware 6.0, Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3, Spyware Doctor, and Webroot Spy Sweeper.

I’ve had trouble finding reviews comparing spyware – it’s hard to have someone review different products with the same setup effectively. For my setup, I used a Dell XPS T750r [pIII 750Mhz, 128MB/25GB ] running a fresh, un-updated copy of Windows 2000 Professional. I started by installing your classic spyware: various Gator clients, an internet download manager and all that came packaged with it, SaveNow and WhenUShop, Bearshare and Grokster. I then turned the security settings all the way down, and did a little surfing.

After I felt that I was nicely spyware’d up I used Norton Ghost 2003 to make a copy from one hard drive to the next, so that each time I’d have the exact same starting point at which to test the anti-spyware products.

Before the test, the system was loaded upon boot: 34 processes and 181204K. This was the same starting point for each of the tested products.

Spyware Doctor 2.0 (PC Tools, http://www.pctools.com)

Free to try, $39.95 to buy. 2.16MB (@download.com)

Good: There’s an OnGuard system that will help you stray from future spyware incidents. Unfortunately, this test is only for what we already have. When scanning, it helps you stop processes so it can quarantine. Also has a very professional interface.

Bad: Annoying little “register me now” popup when running. zSearch and SearchBar lived on. When I rebooted, Windows failed to find some things, and a bunch of popups lived through some missed spyware.

Results: Found 52 problems. Processes 32 / Memory 172736K.
Rating: 2.5/5

Webroot Spy Sweeper (Webroot Software, http://www.webroot.com)

Free to try, $29.95 to buy. 3.21MB (@download.com)

Good: Has easily updatable definitions that it asks you about when you startup. Like Spyware Doctor, has a background client.

Bad: Makes you manually remove many “traces” that other programs seemed to be able to do themselves. MySearch and 411 Ferret lived on.

Results: Found 49 (3,523 traces). Processes 21 / Memory 110560K.
Rating: 3.5/5

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3 (PepiMK Software, http://spybot.safer-networking.de)

Free. 4.15MB (@download.com)

Good: Seemed to run a more thorough search. You can click on most of the problems to get more information on them. Does run again on reboot if you allow it. Also: it told me about the DSO exploit in IE and told me I should update.

Bad: Not the same slick interface others had. Disabled many bars in IE, but a couple lived on strong.

Results: 75 problems found. Processes 26 / Memory 136024K.
Rating: 3.5/5

Ad-aware 6.0 build 181 (Lavasoft, http://www.lavasoftusa.com)

Free. 1.61MB (@download.com)

Good: It’s free and slick. Quarentined and deleted selction and ran on reboot nicely. It did have a little trouble with a few objects, but cleaned them on another scan.

Bad: Got a popup after reboot from some rogue program. Another scan cleaned it up.

Results: 31 proc / 213 objects. Processes 23 / Memory 128800K
Rating: 4/5

Conclusion

We aren't at the point yet where one product will be the final solution to your spyware problems. Because of their virus-like nature, they will continue to pose problems for users for years to come. Education, better coding, and maybe legislation will correct this, but not anytime soon. We're still at the point where you'll need to go a few more steps to remove all infestations - there's no quick product to do everything for you yet.

Spyware is still winning the battle. One cannot exclusively blame the employees of these deceptive companies - while they may be miserable beings, Microsoft and Internet Explorer are doing nothing to help. Consider alternative browsers (or even a different OS), watch your security settings, watch what your clicking, and at least skim license agreements.

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Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) on Acer Travelmate C110 (13688)

It's thin, it's light. It's a tablet. / 2006-10-18

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