Spyware Doctor is packed with false positives. I'd love to see the rate of false positives for something other than toolbars.

What is Spybot doing in there? We all know it's a freeware program that isn't even worthy of being called a "first line of defense," let alone any line of defense.

Seems like you guys just got two that can catch things, a third that is fair, and two that have hardly ever been on par, to make the first two look incredible. Retarded.

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Good by nature, but evil by my own free will.

SpySweeper is not good and their technical support is worse. After installing and using it for some months I thought I was fully protected but when I ran another antispyware I learned that my system was infected with a keylogger: IAmBigBrother. I checked with their support people. I have to mail them three times in order to get some concrete response. It was "we have not heard of it ". I sent them the address of this keylogger website and told them a Google search for IAmBigBrother would enlighten them. The new reply was "Typically if it a valid commercial keylogger then typically we do not remove them, because there are legit and use for non-harmful situations.". That's ridiculous. Any third party like a technician or a co-worker could install this keylogger in your system and obtain your private information. They have to warn about the keylogger existence and let the user to decide what to do with it. But when I told it them they closed my case saying .... it was solved (???)

First off, we fully understand why you chose to review Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal in your article.

You're right: it is popular software! In fact, Ad-Aware SE is trusted by more than 200 million computer users worldwide.

But, what we don't quite comprehend is why your article ranked all of the reviewed anti-spyware software, both paid and free, together in the same group.

Not all software is created equally, but it's not like we have to remind you of that. Users, of course, can expect enhanced capabilities to be available in software that they pay for, when compared with freeware.

In keeping with our mission, we're proud of the fact that we're able to provide free anti-spyware software to our consumers. And we know that even our free software tests in the same top range as some software that you have to pay for.

In the performance rating listed in your own article, Ad-Aware SE detected 5% more adware and spyware than the product ranked ahead of it, CounterSpy. Not only that, but Ad-Aware SE disinfected 10% more adware, and 25% more spyware than CounterSpy. It also did the best job, out of all of the software reviewed, of detecting malware samples.

In the full review, Ad-Aware SE Personal was called a "crippled program", because it doesn't have real time scanning. We don't market our Ad-Aware SE Personal freeware as having real-time scanning, and never have. If you want a fair competition, why not test our paid product, Ad-Aware SE Plus, which, by the way, has real-time scanning?

Sorry PC World, we just don't understand.

I realize everyone's experience with a software application will be different, but I have only good things to say about Webroot's Spy Sweeper.

I have used it for years and it has saved my butt more times than I care to remember, it has already earned it's cost 100 times over. I am self-employed and unfortunately almost all my communication with customers/clients is via email. It makes determining what is spam versus what is legit very difficult. I have stuck with the two programs everyone loves to hate....Norton and SpySweeper.....with very little problems.

Not too long ago, I decided to "lighten" my cumbersome Windows OS by replacing these programs with Windows OneCare.....what a mistake. Yes, Windows was faster and snappier, but when a malignant email came in and my computer turned into a pop-up factory, it was SpySweeper that saved the day, locating and removing 6 different spyware apps that I think were installed en-masse from a rogue email.

Never again will I abandon Norton and Spy Sweeper. Yes, they slow down your system, but at least they are reliable malware killers.

And I had to learn the hard way that Microsoft's all-in-one 'security suite' is a joke. Windows Defender it aint.

To Lavasoft: A computer guru made me a complete PC out of his favorite parts. So I really use an illegitimate hybrid. He put 5 free anti-spyware programs on my sweet machine. One of them was Ad-Aware. This is my favorite destroyer of destructive garbage! I like it because after the scan it tells you exactly the crud thats on your machine and YOU can decide what you want to keep and want you want to throw away. I never thought I could collect so many cookies in one week and also more sites are mining. I don't feel its any of their busines what I buy, what sites I visit, etc. etc. So I usually wipe the slate clean. I have IE AND Firefox (which I use most). I notice an inordinate amount of garbage is coming thru IE. Anyhow, I give Ad Aware thumbs up.
Stargazer

All these Spyware Detectors/Cleaners are nothing but software junk that scare mongering users into buying these products...cough...Mcafee Security Center...cough...for example....alerts you that your PC is vulnerable the moment you install it, simply because you have not suscribed to their services or are not using any of their products......BIG SCAM

If you want safe, secure web browsing, all you need is Mozilla Firefox....it's free, much more reliable and service 'bloat' free.

Don't waste your $$ on a software firewall, you can buy a router with built-in firewall that uses no resources for alot less.

GavMack, ok maybe this type of software is needed to some extent for non-savvy users, but spyware/anti-virus software is still useless when they cannot detect the latest or new 'unknown' yet to be discovered exploits.....the software is not really protecting you as much as you think.