Review: Spybot - Search and Destroy

Don Bradbury upgrades his anti-spyware armoury

Product	Spybot - Search and Destroy v1.6.0
Company	Safer Networking
Web	www.safer-networking.org
Price	Free
We like	Comprehensive spyware scanning and immunization, good customisation, scan scheduling
We don't like	Some potentially dangerous modules in the hands of the unwary
Rating	9/10
Requirements

With ever more sophisticated utility programs available for detecting and removing malicious software from a PC, it makes sense to keep up to date with such tools. Some of the best are freeware, which may add to their appeal for many. Spyware code is not a virus; it's a bit of programming that's been added in some way (usually by surreptitious download) to your computer. It monitors and transmits all of your online activities, and is consequently a potentially serious violation of your privacy. Thus, adding well-chosen anti-spyware to your armoury can only be a good thing to do.

A serious spyware infection might be evident when your computer becomes noticeably slower, or when you see excessive numbers of popups, or your homepage has been switched and system crashes become frequent.

One of the better anti-spyware offerings is Safer Networking's Spybot - Search and Destroy, at the time of writing in version 1.6.0, and offering extended protection in several areas for the PC user. Let's take a look.

After downloading the program from the safer-networking.org web site, installing it, and running it, the program produces the screen menu shown below, albeit with an alternative to the rather plain default skin. This one is the Italia option.

The first thing to do, always, is search for updates, even immediately after the initial installation, in order to bring the program itself and its detection rules up to date. After all, this program is nothing if it's not up to speed with the very latest in combating those who delight in trying to catch us out with their latest Spyware.

You may want to make certain adjustments to Spybot's defaults in the Settings menu before launching a system scan. One of these is the priority you give to the program if you plan on continuing work while the scan is in progress. We always leave Spybot to run its scans while we're away from the computer, so we set the 'highest' priority or 'time critical' where every other process is blocked.

Here you can also opt to let only a single core of your multi-core CPU loose on the scanning process or the application itself. It's supposedly faster if you leave these boxes unticked so that the full power of the computer is given permission to proceed, though we noticed little difference.

When your preferences have been set, you can launch a scan of the system disks. It takes a while whatever settings you make, so take a break while the scan completes and the program's report is produced. Hopefully it will report that nothing suspicious was found.

If spyware is detected, Spybot can remove it automatically, but take a look at the detailed report the program offers before you proceed. It's Recovery module is the equivalent of system restore for the operating system in that it lets you undo changes you've made if suspected spyware was removed and that caused problems.

The next thing you should do is give the program permission to Immunize your system, and this you should do with full admin rights (right click on the program start icon). This is it's way of taking preventative measures, if and when spyware is detected, via your Internet browser. Immunization is the essence of the proactive part of Spybot's power and it should be repeated routinely to bring this feature up to date on your system.

Spybot brings several other useful features to bear that you might value. It can list file sets to be searched for, though generally you'll leave them all selected apart, perhaps, from usage tracking.

Usefully, in it's advanced mode, Spybot can show you the list of currently running processes and loaded modules on your computer. It's a comprehensive listing, intended for advanced users, and a warning is posted that you should not kill any of these processes unless you really know what you're doing.

Spybot makes the general point that there are possible dangers in tinkering with your system using it's more powerful modules, so our advice is to take care and just browse them and leave them unchanged if you're not sure of the potential consequences.

Advanced mode, besides customisable scan scheduling, can also offer you control of Windows' startup items, its System Internals module can carry out repairs to the Windows Registry, and there's even a multi-pass file shredder to totally destroy sensitive data that you wish to make unreadable, just to cite some further examples of Spybot's extensive facilities.

Altogether, Spybot is a powerful tool to have on your system, and well worth taking a look around if you think you have insufficient protection from the OS itself. Windows Defender may be ranked as a worthy offering against spyware but, as is usual, the specialist programs will generally be better still and the two should not interfere with each other, unlike anti-virus programs which often do. The rules might be, one software firewall, one hardware firewall, one reputable anti-virus app, and a couple of good anti-spyware scanning and immunising apps (ie perhaps one to add to Windows Defender if you have it).

In conclusion

Spybot-Search & Destroy is an established and powerful scanning, immunising, and running program diagnostics application that should be used with care by beginners. The default mode scanning and immunisation processes for spyware trapping are safe enough for anyone to use though, and it's thoroughly recommended to everyone - whether they be Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera users - who values the protective element of such a superb, free application.

 

Don Bradbury