Adware or Spyware programs

[olldays]

Can someone give me some advice or reccomendation on which spy or adware programs to use. There are so many of them and I am confused. Also are they the same thing or are they different...ie: adware and spyware programs. :confused:

[Byte 2.0]

There are 2 that I recommend. Spybot and Adaware.

I use both because normally one will miss something and the other will get it. They both update often and are both FREE.

I see no reason to buy any over the counter products when these 2 do such a good job in my opinion.

[olldays]

Thanks mate. I was hoping someone would say Adaware however I will have a go at Spybot as well.

[Cricket]

Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are spyware scanners. If you want to stop spyware from being installed on your computer in the first place, you have to use blockers like SpywareBlaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html) and SpywareGuard (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sgdownload.html).

CoolWebShredder (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html) is a good scanner aimed at specific spyware threats (namely, CoolWebSearch). Get BugOff from the same download page.

And you can also use things like IE Spyad (https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm), block files (http://www.spywareguide.com/blockfile.php) and HOSTS file (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm).

:) Cricket

[Byte 2.0]

actually the new Spybot does have a guard to help prevent many items of spyware from being installed now too.

[kram 2.0]

I've found through cleaning two computers that the best defense against viri/spyware/adware and such is Windows Update...may sound silly, but a simple weekly visit can help prevent a headache. Along with weekly <b>update</b>/scan of Adaware, Spybot, and an AntiVirus Software, that should keep it clean.

[amk1369]

I'm an Ad-aware fan. A daily scan from that and a nightly virus scan keeps things pretty clean.