spyware awareness is on the rise, enterprize solutions are just coming to market right now. I must also reccomend Webroot's Spy Sweeper, it is IMO hands down the best. I will generally use that first, then Ad-Aware and Spybot as secondary measures to clean up what's left. But spyware has gotten so aggressive and changes it's installation/reinstallion patterns so often that my new policy is that if I can't clean it in the first try I'd rather reformat the system. It takes much less time, and is much more successful.
I'm using 4 things right now, I have not a lick of spyware, or random popup/viri backdoor spewing crap. Zone Alarm ( http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp ) it does have a pop up stopper built in, but I still question its effectiveness. Got it for $10 with an instant rebate somewhere, very worth $10. Spy-Bot Search&Destroy ( http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html ) Make sure you use the immuization features, takes care of those random spywares you get when surfing randomly on the internet. Spybot also takes care of some popups and will block addresses from connecting. it's also FREE. Norton Anti Virus Use more than average computer resources, but I don't mind, there is a free antivirus from Grisoft ( http://free.grisoft.com/doc/Get+AVG+FREE/lng/us/tpl/v5 ) there are updates for it as well, so you can stay protected... FREE ! CrapCleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com/ ) Very nice to use at the end of the day to clean up all the crap of temporary files and when/if there are some registry problems it will fix those as well. Its also FREE, no strings attached. Also I am using Firefox, available free, it does work for pretty much everything. Tabbed browsing is cool when you are mutlitasking.
You are right.. Best approach is to keep it out in the first place: http://www.download.com/SpyWall-Anti-Spyware/3000-8022_4-10399287.html Clean you machine: http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-5-2 For popup blocking: http://toolbar.google.com/
I don't like to change what works. But i'll give the security suite a nice *trial*. I stick to CCleaner and spybot as they do work very well and will always be free.
