BleepingComputer.com: I recommend Spyware Doctor

Well I would like to recommend Spyware Doctor which can be found at http://www.pctools.com/ . It is a free scanner, but you have to pay for it to remove the spyware it finds. I contacted PC tools and they sent me (my company) a 30 day trial key to unlock the full version. I have used it on about 20 computers so far and it has indeed fixed everything it found. Some of these PC's had Webroots Spysweeper Enterprise version already installed on them with up to date definitions and STILL had spyware problems. Spyware Doctor fixed these problems when Spysweeper just didn't do the job. I have cleaned tons of spyware off of computers and it can be really difficult to do sometimes. I would run all the free tools and still have problems and have to remove some of it manually. I highly recommend Spyware Doctor, I will be purchasing a copy for myself. It is really nice to install a single Anti Spyware program and have it get rid of all the trash. Last week I ran it on a customers computer and it found 6,700 + spyware files and cleaned them all.
Grinler, you need to check this program out, I am sure you will recommend it too.

do you really need to pay for it to remove your spyware? because this is a really good product, as it found 11 infections whereas spybot and ad aware found none.

I just had the opposite experience. Spyware Doctor was unable to remove vundo and winfixer but I was successful with Webroot Spysweeper.

SpySweeper is known to be able to remove Vundo/WinFixer.

I tried Spyware Doctor, and I like it a lot. Too bad it's not free.

I don't recommend Spyware doctor.

This post has been edited by Richard Fu: 02 July 2008 - 09:53 AM

Quote

Mine giving an explanation to that opnion?
Spyware Doctor is good, however slows down my computer dramatically for some strange reason...
Also I uninstalled it because of that reason, a link popuped saying about getting Spyware Doctor for free using the Google Pack, Not sure what it does but sounds interesting you might want to try it out and see if its really free or not.

I recommend Spyware Doctor! Number 1 detector! Forget the off the shelf products!

I also would like to NOT RECOMMEND spyware doctor. Running on a clean computer it detected over 500 bad objects!
I am deeply suspicious of a program that doesn't have an unistall routine and doesn't register itself as an installed program.

That's weird mine is listed in Add or Remove Programs and also has an uninstall option in it's folder. Did you download your copy from the official site or somewhere else?

An since you don't say if it was adware/spyware/cookies I'll just post what I think of the 500 bad objects.
1.) False Positives
or
2.) Tracking Cookies [You could easily have over 500 if the other programs you use don't scan for them.]
or
3.) Your computer could of actually been infected since no single program can detect everything.
or
4.) You might of downloaded Spyware Doctor from a bad site.

I recommend Spybot Search & Destroy.

You must manually update it regularly but other than that it's light on the CPU, finds and fixes a good proportion of spyware and has an excellent forum for Spybot problems/help.

I also use AVG free edition as an antivirus. Well recommended as is free and again, provided you remember to update regularly it works as well as the pay-for AVs such as Norton and McAfee.

Just get the free 'Starter' edition like I did. You're meant to get it with the Google Pack, but I didn't fancy any of that, so got the software on it's own...

Info:

http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/google_pack/

Download Without Google Pack:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2213005/spyware-doctor-starter-edition

BTW - anyone who uses this to remove malware from PC's, I found after the first initial update when it downloaded things it said it was fully updated. Then I restarted and there was 10mb more of definitions updates for me....

As for what m0le said about AVG, I think that even if you don't keep AVG updated it's still probably better than McAfee or Norton....

This post has been edited by iisjman07: 28 October 2008 - 11:26 AM

iisjman07, on Oct 28 2008, 06:24 PM, said:

Yes!! Google Pack offer Starter Edition of SD 6(you get basic realtime ptrotection,scanning&removing)

Google Pack says you get the Spyware Doctor Starter addition Free, which I tried, however it only scans, not removes the found items. It is no different than the trial addition on pctools.com. I then physically purchased the product from Best Buy, because my computer was slower than I thought it should be. (All other programs I run for malware found nothing.) Spyware Dr found Vundo and basically released it in my system, making a slightly slow PC into one that had various random popups, and would freeze constantly. Vundo kept coming back daily. I finally got rid of it (I think!) using Malwarebytes, which is free and 100% better. I'm afraid to even rescan with Spyware Dr, as it caused so many problems before.

Regarding Spyware Doctor Starter Edition available through the Google Pack.

"According to reports in the PC Tools forum, the Starter Edition signature database is on installation, smaller than the paid version and fewer new signatures are downloaded during signature updates as well."

http://www.techsupportalert.com/issues/iss...htm#Section_3.7

http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.ph...tion+signatures

After installing a google toolbar on my IE7, several strange things started happening:

When I would go to sites, whether usiing firefox or IE7, my firewall would come down. So I adjusted some of my settings on firefox so that my settings would look less suspicious to legitimate sites. In other words, I changed some of my firefox toolbar options for customizing google, and for privacy, etc.

Then two days ago, I got a notice, apparently from microsoft/google that I had a microsoft update that had noit been successfully installed. So I went to microsoft, verified the update site, and tried again.

I got a lovely menu from microsoft/google. It started installing google earth (which I did not want, and it did not explain why I needed it). It started installing spyware doctor, which I did not want. I could not make changes to the installations, although one is apparently given a choice--the choices don't work.

Both google earth and spyware doctor take up lots and lots or memory. And once they were installed, I had problems accessing my usual internet provider, a regular, as opposed to google desktop, firefox start page. Typing any kind of e-mail, whether earthlink or gmail, was a nightmare, with constant autosave and very slow entry of typed letters and words. Click-tracking at its worst. So after the "approved" downloads, my computer starting acting as though it was very badly infected. I removed google earth and spyware doctor. Started up next day, same problem. My microsoft downloads are scheduled to be installed when I turn the computer off; I got up in the middle of the night, and my computer was still running, although the screen was off. I uninstalled spyware doctor, reinstalled spybot S&D and malware-bytes. Numerous infections. Including several trojan horses and click-trackers.

During this time I was also getting a popup for an adobe product I already have, in the same version.

I think spyware doctor is a form of malware itself. It was very intrusive, kept my avira free from functioning properly. I also had used another free scan, which was very slow, but found nothing. So the spybot S&D and malware-bytes apparently took care of all the problems. Unfortunately, spybot does not have a function that allows for log storage of results and actions taken. And I question what microsoft now considers to be priority installations.

If any of you have had problems after spyware doctor was installed, try removing spyware doctor, then scanning with spybot S&D, then malware-bytes. My computer seems to be just fine this morning. I intend to remove any firefox and google add-ons which are intended to make life more convenient on the computer, but probably are good targets for viruses and trojans. I have no add-ons on my IE7