Entered CNET Catalog: 03/14/2007
SKU: CNETSPYBOTSEARCHANDDESTROY 1.4
Manufacturer: Patrick M. Kolla
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/27/2007
Spybot - Search and Destroy appears to be resting on its past laurels; the version we tested this year, 1.4, is unchanged from previous years. And that has cost Spybot in terms of detection and removal. Spybot, once the apple of our eye, has fallen to almost the bottom of our Top 10 pile. While its shields blocked a majority of samples, and its scanner detected a majority samples, its removal paled among the 10 applications we tested, removing only one sample out of eight. Still, Spybot includes more features than even the paid antispyware products we tested. Since it's free, there's no harm in having it installed (it also plays well with others), but for serious, free antispyware removal, we give the nod to Microsoft Windows Defender.
Setup
Spybot - Search and Destroy is freeware, meaning you can use it without paying a dime; however, the author asks you to submit a donation if you like the program. After a quick download and installation, the Spybot setup includes a user-friendly wizard process. Step three creates a registry backup (a good idea if you haven't done one in a while), step five searches for updates, and step six asks whether or not to immunize your system (that is, setup active shield defenses against known spyware).
Should you want to remove Spybot-Search and Destroy 1.4, there's an uninstall icon provided in the All Programs list. However, don't expect Spybot to remove everything. After we uninstalled and rebooted, we found more than one system registry entry and a system file folder with various subfolders remaining. Most of the other antispyware apps we tested had clean uninstalls.
Interface
We like that Spybot still warns upon start-up that removing adware and spyware could disable software on our system. It's a small touch, and we'd like it if other vendors reminded us as well. There still are two interfaces within Spybot, the default mode and advanced mode. Default mode consists primarily of large buttons for Check for Problems, Recovery (in case you remove something that's important to a program you want to keep), and Search for Updates, with a left-hand navigation option to immunize your system against future installs of known spyware. The Advanced menu offers more left-hand navigation options, such as language settings, skins, a scheduler, exclusion lists, tools such as a data shredder, Internet Explorer browser tweaks, and a list of applications that have registered an uninstaller with your system (making it easy to remove these applications).
Features
Spybot continues to rival paid antispyware products by offering a number of features not found elsewhere, such as its unparalleled language support. We also like the ability to apply various skins, but it's the tools that impressed the most. Of all the antispyware apps we tested, Spybot is one of the few to include a free file shredder, which means Spybot can overwrite deleted spyware with 1s and 0s, so the deleted file is truly removed from your system.
However, we do not like the a la carte system of software updates. Users on dial-up systems may appreciate not having one large download and being able to prioritize what files they load, but those users also may skip an important update feature in the interest of convenience. We'd prefer that updates be made to the download file itself--that way new users will have smaller updates to contend with.
Performance
Spybot - Search and Destroy is very fast, scanning our entire laptop within several minutes. To achieve that speed, Spybot at times used up to 50 percent of our system's resources, but did so for a significantly shorter amount of time than other products we tested. That said, overall, Spybot fell from number one a few years ago to just below average among the antispyware apps we tested. In exclusive testing by CNET Labs, Spybot's active shields identified and blocked five out of eight spyware samples we attempted to install, missing Compare-Prices.zip, Clickpix, and MarketScore. For scanning and removing existing spyware samples, Spybot caught five out of eight, missing Compare-Prices.zip, Clickpix, and JustFindIt toolbar. But Spybot only removed spyware residue from one of eight samples, ISTBar/AccuSurf, leaving the rest to possibly reinstall at a later date on our test machine.
Support
PMK Software survives on donations, so support of Spybot is spotty at best. Spybot includes a text-based tutorial that is rather thorough, along with a detailed in-program Help index. However, we found that our technical support e-mail to PMK went unanswered.
Conclusion
Spybot is overdue for a thorough update. It's good at finding various cookies, but in our tests it missed a few apps through both active shielding and scanning and failed to remove almost all the spyware we loaded onto our test machine. While we like the many features that are offered for free, chances are you downloaded this app for spyware removal and not its pretty skins.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
User Rating: 
10/10
Great Product
Pros: It's free and it works.
Cons: Not too fast. Sometimes very slow.
User Rating: 
4/10
not vert good
Pros: not good low detection
Cons: wolf in sheeps clothing
User Rating: 
8/10
great program
Pros: does what it should
Cons: could be better
User Rating: 
9/10
A good tool to remove spyware, adware and even rouge malware
Pros: Easy to use, light, powerful
Cons: Uninpressive design, no technical support
User Rating: 8/10
Better than most, potential is great.
Pros: Comprehensive search, good broad protection, frequent updates, and good provided descriptions for most spyware,etc.
Cons: Slow search, fairly ugly, needs to work better with certain vicious spywares, needs more advanced features.
The search is slow, and could be a lot easier on Memory, I have a high performing computer and it stills takes a good bite out of my memory usage.
You can tell the program was made by awesome people, but they obviously need money. A 2.0 would be great. Descriptions of Spyware, etc are detailed, and can be found with nearly all popular spywares.
I would suggest everyone adds this program to their collection (and donate a few bucks to the company who makes it.) The program is crucial for your computers Spyware battle.
Also, the Tea Timer feature somewhat sucks. If given more comprehensive user enabled protection and combined within the S&D software, this would be a 9.5 out of 10 product. Great potential for what could be the future best Spyware Removal Software.
If you have Ad-Aware, or other Spyware Removal softare, add this to your collection. You'd be surprised on what they miss, and what S&D will find.
User Rating: 8/10
I respectfully disagree with the editor
Pros: Picks up most spyware
Cons: A little bulky for non-technical users.
User Rating: 8/10
good product, simple to use
Pros: detects more spywares than paid for products
Cons: update system is manual
User Rating: 8/10
GFTA - a Great and Free Tool for All to Use!
Pros: Works well with several other programs to clear out spyware.
Cons: Doesn't fare well as a standalone free product. Conflicts with PC-cillin Internet Security
Despite it's conflict with Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security, it is a pretty good free anti-spyware product with easy interfaces for everyone to use. Used it before together with McAfee's Stinger and Norton Antivirus/Internet Security, and it integrates well with the 2 softwares.
To summarize it all, Spybot S&D should not work alone, and it is a recommended anti-spyware product in a combination of other anti-spyware products.
User Rating: 9/10
Best Antispyware softaware I'vs ever used !
Pros: Many useful features, scans computer fastly and it's FREE !!
Cons: None so far...
Many useful features are included in this security app and are VERY useful. It contains a system startup window so you can control what programs will run when your machine is on, contains a secure shredder, a resident shield, an IE page blocker and so many others...
Scanning with this is very smooth and it's fast and quick. Updates are easy to get and the software is very easy to use. Overall, compared with Ad-Aware and Windows Defender, this thing rocks !!
User Rating: 9/10
Not to be confused with spywarebot!
Pros: Finds more spyware than any I have tried.
Cons: I found nothing negative.
User Rating: 9/10
Essential anti-spyware app
Pros: Lots of features, cheap
Cons: Doesn't detect spyware with random file names
User Rating: 9/10
Spybot S&D works for me!
Pros: I was able to get unusable computers up and running again with Spybot S&D!
Cons: Spybot S&D was not able to get a trojan off of my laptop!
User Rating: 9/10
Excellent free program. Use Spybot!
Pros: Exceptional addition to any arsenal utilized for countering spyware and viruses!
Cons: None. I don't think one could expect more from a freeware program.
User Rating: 
7/10
One Piece of the Puzzle
Pros: Works great with other solutions include anti-virus and other spyware applications. Updates definitions often and is resource-light.
Cons: Mostly only catches tracking cookies. Klunky interface.
User Rating: 8/10
MS Defender = watered down CounterSpy?
Pros: if you like Defender
Cons: I think you'd like CounterSpy even more?
User Rating: 7/10
Quick and easy program to use along with other anti-spyware solutions
Pros: Quick, fast, easy. Friendly interface remains basically the same as it did in previous versions.
Cons: Doesn't catch everything, not good to use as your only anti-spyware
This is my go-to product whenever I have to quickly remove spyware from someone's "slow" computer. I'll download and install Spybot in about 5 minutes, run a scan in about 10-15 minutes, and bam, the computer seems to run as good as new. Then I'll instruct the person to install more free anti-spyware tools like AVG or Windows Defender.
From past experience I know Spybot doesn't catch everything, but it's so quick and easy to install, it's my best first line of defense. It seems to catch most of the common annoying adware that bogs down computers.
I recommend this as a quick addition to your existing anti-spyware arsenal!
User Rating: 7/10
I like this program. It is really simple but quite effective.
Pros: woks well, easy and straight forward.
Cons: You do need to run other adware/spyware programs with it.
User Rating: 8/10
noting wrong with spybot
Pros: sypbot is peety easy to use in simple mode, a bit more fun in afvanced mode
Cons: tea time can be a pain, any time you install something
it easy to use,,
i sure would not trust microsoft product
a co what to get in to the spyware and virus business, when it sodtware is the main cause of by both are around
go fique
gluess ther want the cake and icing to
