By Robert Vamosi, ZDNet US

For years, removing ad-serving software (often called adware or spyware) from your desktop has been the job of one product: Ad-aware by Lavasoft. But there's a new game in town. PepiMK Software's Spybot offers a wealth of useful features that, frankly, should send Lavasoft back to the drawing board. Spybot delivers useful tools such as an email list of opt-out addresses to stop unwanted solicitations and a file shredder to securely overwrite unwanted files deleted from your PC -- all of which Ad-aware Standard Edition lacks. Best of all, Spybot does it all for free. For protection against ad-serving software, Trojan horses and other means of tracking your surfing habits, get Spybot immediately.

ZDNet Review
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For years, removing ad-serving software (often called adware or spyware) from your desktop has been the job of one product: Ad-aware by Lavasoft. But there's a new game in town. PepiMK Software's Spybot offers a wealth of useful features that, frankly, should send Lavasoft back to the drawing board. Spybot delivers useful tools such as an email list of opt-out addresses to stop unwanted solicitations and a file shredder to securely overwrite unwanted files deleted from your PC -- all of which Ad-aware Standard Edition lacks. Best of all, Spybot does it all for free. For protection against ad-serving software, Trojan horses and other means of tracking your surfing habits, get Spybot immediately.

Setup & interface

Spybot Search and Destroy is available only as a free 2.31MB download; there's no boxed version. The program installs in a flash and automatically places an icon on your desktop for quick access.

Before starting, there's a legal disclaimer that says if you remove advertising robots (or spybots) from your computer with Spybot, you may not be able to continue using the host program. Chances are, if you download a freeware product, the end-user license agreement says that you agree to the advertising placed on your computer as a result. Removing it with Spybot may make the freeware unusable. Although the two products do basically the same thing, this disclaimer is missing from Ad-aware.

Spybot's interface itself is straightforward: buttons along the left side allow access to Spybot's many features, while the large main section provides details, such as the individual languages available or the results of a spybot search of your hard drive. When you launch the program after installation, you'll be reminded to update the program for the latest version. Next, Spybot opens to a settings screen that offers a variety of choices -- such as removing cookies, Trojan horses, and usage tracking -- without a wizard to assist the end user. Also, the overall terminology is a little confusing at first; for example, to run Spybot's various scans, you must click a button that says Check For Problems (instead of the more intuitive Start).

While Spybot Search and Destroy is running, a countdown clock in the lower right-hand corner first estimates the duration of the scan, then counts down to completion.

Features

When Spybot finishes scanning for suspected ad-serving software and other Internet maladies, it produces a listing with a check box beside each item to remove or keep it. Unsure how to proceed? Simply click an item for a detailed explanation of what it is, what company issued the item, and a recommendation from Spybot. Better yet, if you decide to keep the ad component on your computer, you also have the option to exclude it from future searches.

Moving down the left-hand navigation, the Settings button accesses language, file sets, directories, and skins. Unlike Ad-aware, Spybot Search and Destroy has the option to run in one of 25 languages, including Magyar and two dialects of Russian. The file sets detail all of the functions that Spybot can perform, such as checking for Trojan horses or usage tracking. For safety, though, you'll want to keep them all enabled and override the search results from time to time. Settings are the options that you are presented with the first time you load Spybot, but they won't make sense until you've run the program on your computer a few times. For example, you may decide you want to run Spybot every time you reboot your computer, or you might want to speed up its scanning to the fastest-possible setting. The Directories tool allows you to specify your download directory path so that Spybot will always check freshly downloaded files for spying software (often found with freeware and some shareware). The Skins option allows you to change the look and feel of Spybot, although at the moment there are few options available in English.


Article source and further details:  ZDNet