If you frequently visit websites you are not sure you can trust, use other people’s disks or removable drives or are just plain worried about computer safety, then Spybot Search and Destroy could be a valuable weapon in your arsenal.
Safer Networking’s Spybot search and destroy is a popular software that works both actively and passively in protecting your computer. Available online and free for personal use, it can be used to detect and remove trojans, tracking cookies, worms and spyware. Moreover, once installed it can be used to prevent future infections through the immunize tool.
The software is simple to use. Once installed, a quick “Check for Problems” will list out all possible infections in your system, with more information regarding each in the adjacent pane. You can fix these with the click of a button.
Spybot S&D also has three resident functions. The “Immunize” feature works with your browsers (IE, Firefox and Opera) to block websites from installing tracking cookies or spyware via drive-by-download malicious behavior.
The Resident SDHelper is useful for Internet Explorer users as it prevents dangerous ActiveX installs through the browser. And lastly, the resident ‘tea-timer’ is a process that runs in the background and monitors file and application installs. If any install is initiated, the user is warned and if it was not started by the user, he or she can choose to kill it before launch.
There are other goodies in the software too – the “Tools” column on the left pane contains a secure file shredder that allows you to delete unwanted files without a trace, a Registry analyzer that you can use to remove inconsistent and obsolete entries and, Startup and Uninstall monitors among other useful features.
Features:
- Free for personal use
- Detects and removes spyware, tracking cookies and trojans
- Prevents drive-by installs of malicious software
- Monitors all application installs and allows the user to prevent unwanted installations
- Contains many system tools like Secure File Shredding, Registry cleaning, Startup item removal and universal uninstaller
Hence, for safer and trouble-free surfing, choose Spybot Search & Destroy.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Spybot search and destroy help me remove a spware from my computer which was causing my Skype account to spam anyone on my list. The tool was totally simple to use and awesome and it detected almost ALL the spyware on my computer and cleared it up in a jiffy! totally user friendly and totally worth it! awesome…
nice article. just had a query.i use windows 2003. i have installed panda antivirus.i want to know if i download spybot as u said can it work in conjuction with my antivirus? is spybot same as antivirus?
I think it should because spybot s&d specifically targets spyware and malware. But then, antiviruses nowadays claim to get rid of all kinds of malicious programs. So, you’ll have to check it if both work well together.
I think spybot s&d is affective, but man it can be annoying with the constant pop ups verifying things are okay.