I’ve been a firm supporter of PestPatrol’s anti-spyware software for a couple years now, and although it isn’t free, I prefer it to all of the other spyware removal software that I’ve tried. It is the 2nd install I do after building (or rebuilding) a machine (after Norton Antivirus, which is installed after I install all service patches for the OS). Since I’ve been building machines this way, I very rarely run into spyware installed on my machine. The key to Pest Patrol is that it stops spyware from installing, not just cleans it up afterward.
But, with that said, PestPatrol was recently bought by ComputerAssociates, and they have a reputation (in my mind) for killing good products, so I was on the look out for a replacement to my good old Pest Patrol. It didn’t take CA long to start killing PestPatrol. They already eliminated the free download version (that didn’t remove or stop spyware, but did let you know what issues you had). So, I’m off to try out Microsoft’s newly rebranded anti-spyware software. So far, I haven’t run into anything that makes me dislike it. It did find some registry entries that PestPatrol had missed (left over from a pest that got cleaned up). The Browser Setting restore is something that PestPatrol didn’t have, but I don’t really need that (but others may). The scan speed seems to be about the same between the 2 products, and both don’t seem to take up much in the way of resources when in real time protection mode (unlike some versions of Norton Antivirus). Both seem to do a good job getting info on running processes and startup files (but the Microsoft product does have a better looking UI).
Overall, it looks like as long as Microsoft continues improving their product, I’ll be switching from PestPatrol, even if that means forking over a few bucks (I do that now for PestPatrol anyway).