Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover

If you are using Windows XP SP2 my top recommendation is Microsoft's Windows Defender program [1] which is currently available as a free beta. Defender is the latest re-incarnation of the excellent Giant Antispyware product that Microsoft purchased late in 2004. Based on my tests, Windows Defender is not as effective as its immediate predecessor but still has the best protective capability of any of the free anti-spyware products. I tested it on several drive-by download sites and its multiple real time monitors provided reasonable (though by no means watertight) defense. It appears to be a little vulnerable to polymorphic malware in particular and for this reason I suggest it should be used in combination with regular on-demand scans from the free Ewido anti-trojan program . My other reservation about Windows Defender is that it consumes quite a lot of your processing power. If you have a modern PC this should not be a problem but older machines will definitely suffer a performance hit.

Note that you need a legal version of Windows XP SP2 to run this program. I've been told cracked versions of Defender that will run on any XP SP2 PC are currently circulating on the P2P networks but I'd approach those with caution. The idea of a cracked security program strikes me as an oxymoron.

For Windows 9x and ME users I suggest two free products: Ad-Aware SE V1.6 [2] and SpyBot Search and Destroy V1.4 [3]. Neither product is state of the art but if you use them together you should pick up most spyware products. Ad-Aware "free" is just a scanner and has no memory monitor. This leaves you vulnerable to new infections. SpyBot provides some protection through its "immunization" feature and offers a tad more if you turn on the optional "TeaTimer" monitor though this will cost you a chunk of your processing power. The active protection offered by SpyBot even with TeaTimer enabled is not all that comprehensive but Internet Explorer users can enhance their protection by using SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard (see next item).

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d ( 6.4MB)
[2] http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ (2.7MB)
[3] http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html (4.8MB)