SpyBot vs. Ad-Aware

[Auntie]

I am familiar with Ad-Aware, and I have only recently heard of SpyBot. My brother is wanting to download SpyBot, so I told him I would get some opinions about it.

How is SpyBot different from Ad-Aware?

Is SpyBot a safe and good program?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using SpyBot?


Thanks for your help!

 

[AngelAmidala]

Personally, I had better luck with SpyBot then I did with AdAware. I was running AdAware literally every day at work to get rid of unwanted pop-ups when I would do things that would not even issue a pop-up. I ran SpyBot a few months ago and haven't ad an unwarranted pop-up since.

However, using SpyBot can be dangerous because it checks a lot more places for things and ups your risk for blowing away something you actually need to run your computer.

At least that's what I read somewhere.

But I have had much more success with SpyBot then I had with Ad-Aware.

 

[paulewog]

I just deal with the popups

 

[Ajnin]

Uh Paul, neither of these programs blocks ads, well I don't know about spybot, and if you want ad-aware to block ads you have to pay for it, but that's besides the point. Ad-Aware is used to delete many types of software that is installed on your system without your knowing about it. It can cause a lot of problems just by being there, taking up PC space.

1. It can cause a slower boot up on your pc.
2. It can slow down your computer.
3. It can mess with your homepage, sending you to god knows what web page when you start up.
4. It can toss a tail load of new webpages under your favorites category.
5. It can take up your bandwidth reporting information about you back to the person who planted it on you.

Now I know all that sounds fun, but it can also start chains of pop ups that don't end. They don't end. They won't end. Annoying isn't it? Sometimes the only way to stop them is to pull the plug. I've had to do that a number of times. And of course these pop ups aren't advertising cheetos, red bull, or nike, noooo, their advertising the 1# industry on the internet. And that's what 99.99% of the ads popping up are going to be.

There's a bunch more, but there's plenty of people out there who know more about spyware, and you can go to their websites to read all about the fun stuff spyware does. So just download a copy of Spybot or Ad-Aware, and kill off all these little bugs before you start to get bit.

For Spybot http://spybot.safer-networking.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download

For Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

For more info about spyware http://www.spywareinfo.com/

And for the record, I like Ad-Aware 6.0 It's interesting to watch the program scan, and read what baddies you have on your system before you delete them. That and it's easy to update.

 

[Auntie]

Ajnin, cute little sig there, I like it.


My brother's concern is the spyware, not necessarily the pop-ups. He went to the SpyBot site, and read how SpyBot works. He said it works completely different from Ad-Aware. He was concerned that you have to "save" the SpyBot file (which is a .exe) directly to your hard drive, and not as a separate file that you can later extract. Also, he was concerned because SpyBot automatically deletes some old registry files from deleted applications. Just wondering if this could lead to problems.