Customer Reviews

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 2009

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Positive points regarding Spyware Doctor.

This software removed extra spyware that CA securities, adware, and Spybot missed. It actually found a good amount of additional spyware.

The software was easy to load and operate.

The spyware detection runs through its cycle relatively fast.

Negative points

The option to use active protection causes conflicts and near crashes apparently.

At different times at least 50% of my processing power was being dedicated to running the software.

I have a modern up-to-date computer with Intel dual processors 2.5 gigs of RAM. Therefore the computer should easily be able to run this software without bogging down.

Overall I like the idea of removing extra spyware I just wish the program was fully functional and could prevent spyware form entering my system.

On the surface this looks like a great program, being recommended by "experts worldwide", and being able to detect, remove, and prevent spyware and adware. Spyware Doctor promises 24/7 protection as well as ease of use, free updates and upgrades, and free 24/7 support. How can you go wrong?
I first tried to install the Doctor on my Windows 64 computer, but there were some compatibility issues so the marriage never took place.

The next suitor was my Windows XP laptop. The Doctor didn't take long to move in, unpack, and organize all of his files. Next he surveyed his new surroundings and detected over 200 "infections." Almost all of the infections were of the low risk adware/cookie variety.

I deleted all of the germy intruders en masse, but I wish I could have figured out a way to only delete selected infections. I wanted to keep some of the benign cookies.

The program is easy to install, and easy to use with an clear,easily understood interface.

However, even with two of the automatic scanning tools turned off, it slowed all internet activities to a crawl. The next time the Mrs. uses this laptop, she'll most likely want me to uninstall the cause of the traffic slowdown.

I used both webroot's spysweeeper and PC tools Spyware Dr.

Last year it seemed they were close in detections.

Now Spyware dr is giving spysweeper a daily smackdown.

Spyware dr consistently finds things that my other AV and/or anti-malware scanners miss.

At work, I run 2 anti-malware scanners for precisely the conclusion someone might draw from the above writeup.

No two scan tools are the same in detection capabilities.


Unlike anti-virus scanners, you CAN have more than one anti-malware detectors installed on a PC; (but you would probably want to limit things to only having one software pkg running in the background, in realtime).


And if by chance they WERE close in detection abilities; then there is a good chance that the actual REMOVAL of the detected "pests"
might go well for one product, while another product fails miserably at removing detection "pests".



I will say that even spyware dr had some problems in removing an ActiveX trojan and I had to use JV powertools to remove the registry infections, at the registry level.

May 1st,2009 Update:

Incredible detection and removal in an ACTUAL, real world circumstance just a day ago.

A co-worker got infected and gave his drive to me to clean.

I hooked it up as an external hard drive, via a USB external hard drive chassis.

I first scanned it with webroot spysweeper, then kaspersky AV and then Norton internet security 2009. Kaspersky and norton found trojans and deleted them.
[In case you are wondering, I have 3 home PCs, each with a different internet security suite.
But all with a secondary malware scanner, which is Spyware Dr.]

I was ready to give it back, but since I was not going to see my friend until the later, I decided to give it a final scan.
So as a final scan I used Spyware doctor.

I could not believe it.

Spyware dr found a #%^$#& "Rootkit".
Plus, it removed the rootkit.

I was happy for my friend, but very unsettled that the other 3 programs did not find & delete the rootkit.
After all, how many IT techs would scan a hard drive as many times as I did, and with as big a variety of software scanners as I did?

I went ahead and did a clean install of XP on a different (new) hard drive, for my friend.
I advised him to install and update an Internet security suite before hooking up the external hard drive and importing any of his old data.

Pros:
1. excellent detection - beat out 3 other programs in an actual test.
2. good cleanup/removal ability
3. new updates either daily, or close to daily.

Cons:
It can add some extra overhead to your pc and depending on what it is scanning, can slow your pc.
Best to set up a scheduled update and scheduled scan during your off hours (like when you are sleeping).

I thought the McAfee programs were bad about being memory pigs, but I've never seen ANY program that can come even close to being as big of a HOG AS THIS ONE! With it just running in the background, and only this,I checked my Windows Task Manager and it was using over 700 MB of memory and had the CPU pegged at 100%.
Yes, my computer is a little old. But its not that bad! It has a 1.7 Ghz processor, 512 mg of ram. Its an old Dell OptiPlex GX240 with a 35 gig hard drive. So ya, it ain't a hot rod like it was when it was new but it isn't ready for the trash can yet.
The thing is, I have never seen any program use up so much memory and
CPU doing nothing! I ran a couple of scans with it, one quick scan that didn't find anything and one complete scan that took over 24 hrs. It didn't find anything either.
Then I ran my old SpyBot and SpywareBlaster and they both found a few things on just a quick scan. So don't waist your money on this one or your time installing it. Unless you have at least a gig or more of RAM memory don't even think about installing this and still be able to do anything else with your computer with this just running in the background. And even if you have plenty of memory, 3 or 4 gig, it still isn't worth installing. Not in my opinion anyway. There are several other programs that do better and use less and a lot of them are free.
Overall I'm very disappointed in this program and I would not recommend it to any one.

I wanted to like this program, but it's too buggy for me. I installed it on a desktop running XP Home edition. The installation was smooth, but that's where 'easy to use' ended.

I've installed literally hundreds of programs on computers and always reboot after the installation of a new program to avoid problems. Unfortunately that reboot was the start of my problems with this program. The computer froze multiple times after running the update, and again after it did a 20 minute 'intellscan'.

I knew the antivirus suite I run (BitDefender Internet Security Suite 2009) might be partially to blame so I disabled it to try and see if it would help, but it didn't. Spyware Doctor did find 3 threats on my machine. Prior to this I was using a free program and didn't run a scan prior to uninstalling it, rebooting and installing this software. When I finally got the computer into Safe Mode, I uninstalled PC Tools Spyware Doc and things went back to normal; no freezing up or other problems. Also no problems after BitDefender was reactivated.

If this program ran smoothly on XP I'd still want it to be what all 2009 versions should be: compatible with all forms of Vista. This program doesn't support Vista 64-bit, and it should.

When you buy this product you can put it on up to 3 PCs for one year. Why for just a year? In my opinion this shouldn't be like an anti-virus yearly update, unless the software offers a bit more bang for the buck.

There are several adequate free spyware programs out there, and they all seem to do the job this software does without bogging down XP or battling with an antivirus/security suite. PC Tools Spyware Doctor 2009 Version 6.0 isn't really necessary if you run something like Spybot or a similar product which can be downloaded for FREE from Cnet. Save your money and you'll reap the same rewards without the headaches. You may even find one compatible with Vista 64-bit!

On a positive note... you do get a nice scratch pad along with the software CD and install guide.

I'm in charge of keeping 5 computers healthy and bug-free (two at home, 3 at work), so I am always on the lookout for easy programs that work quietly in the background to keep them all working well.

All my computers are currently running this setup:
Avira AntiVir Personal (free edition at home, paid at work)
Windows Defender (free)
CC Cleaner (free)
Ad Aware (free)
AusLogics Disk Defrag (free)
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner (free)
Spybot - Search & Destroy (free)

Some of these programs run in the background and offer protection (Avira, Windows Defender). The others I run about once a month, more frequently if we're adding or removing lots of programs.

In testing Spyware Doctor, I used my laptop as the first guinea pig. Initially I booted the computer up and measured the time it took - just under a minute. Without running any regular scans, I uninstalled all the above named products, and re-booted twice, again checking the time it took - again just under a minute.

I installed Spyware Doctor and did two boots - checking the clock on the second boot - startup now takes nearly 3 minutes.

I updated Spyware Doctor and ran a full scan. The Doctor caught 7 groups of items, 1 'critical' and the rest 'negligible'. After checking through the list, I determined that many of the negligibles were cookies I wanted to keep. I de-selected these and had the Doctor clean the rest.

Next, I re-installed my regular regimen of free programs. Running Ad-Aware, CC Cleaner and Spybot gleaned a total of more than 70 items that Spyware Doctor missed. There were two critical items and the rest were just cookies and other junk that gets dumped on our computers when we surf the net. Not really security issues but not necessary either.

For the next test, I moved to my desktop at home. This has the same regimen of free programs. I ran all those programs first, finding and deleting about 40 items in all. I uninstalled the freeware and installed Spyware Doctor. Startup times again increased by about 45 seconds to 1 minute. I ran Spyware Doctor, which found 4 negligibles that were cookies I wanted to keep.

So, is Spyware Doctor a good product? Yes, it does a decent job of finding and removing junk. It is simple to use and is a great option for people who don't want to worry about an active defense.

Would I recommend it to everyone? No. If you are willing to spend a few minutes a month running a couple of free programs, you will have slightly better results and your computer will boot up and run faster. You will save money.

It's up to the individual user to decide which category they fall in. If you are willing to take some effort, go for the free programs. If you don't want the hassle, purchase Spyware Doctor.

-Installation was very quick and seamless. Minimal irritating pop-up windows (unlike Norton) and gets going with updates and scan quickly.
-low resource consumption
-Picked up waaaaaay more spyware than Lavasoft's AdAware and Norton.
-Spyware removal was quick and no problems.
-Just as a point of interest: uninstallation of this software is quick and with minimal fuss (some programs are a pain to uninstall)

I suppose no one program will cover all bases. Having said that, SPYWARE Doctor is definitely worth having as an additional measure of protection given its comprehensive detection tools. Well designed for the average consumer. For me, this program will replace my Lavasoft AdAware but I will keep Norton on for a while (even if it is the most irritating of all virus/spyware programs I own) and do a more careful comparison between these two.

These days, it goes without saying that using a high-end, high-performance Internet Security System/Suite is a must. I've been using Kaspersky products for some years now with great satisfaction: I currently have Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 on all home and mobile computers, XP 32-bit and Vista 64-bit with the only problem being one instance of corrupt data files on the Vista computer, which was cleared up with a reloading of the software.

Every now and then a company claims to produce a "better" product, and I like to test them out to see if their claims really live up to the hype.

Enter PC Tools Spyware Doctor and its heroic claims --
1) "EXCLUSIVE Behavior Guard stops threats others miss" (from "Install Guide")
2) "Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus' exclusive Behavior Guard technology provides more effective protection than competitors' traditional threat detection methods.*"
*[below on next page on box] "Results achieved during internal testing conducted by PC Tools. Results may vary."

Mine "VARIED"--
I first uninstalled Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 to avoid conflicts; then, after an installation of PC Tools Spyware Doctor and updates to current definitions that is perennially retarded by design, not allowing one to pick a default language but forcing you BEFORE EACH UPDATE to DESELECT 51 (yes, FIFTY ONE) other language file updates, the software locked up my computer on the desktop upon reboot.

I manually shut down (CTRL-ALT-DELETE wouldn't work, as the software even locked that up) and rebooted. This time the system loaded, but the boot was noticeably bogged down with slow loading of the PC Tools Engine (I'm running a Dell XPS Gen 3, P4 w/ HT @3.4GHz, 4GB RAM, and XP SP3).

Interestingly, the scan itself was quite speedy, even though I set it to run as deep a scan as I could -- it only took about 5 minutes, max. However, here's the grand total of what it turned up....

Sounds scary at first -- 3 types of "infections" involving 70 files, but just what is "infected"?
1) "Low" risk -- 2 adware cookies that may be in the cookie folder, but I recognize them because KIS 2009 blocks them when detected. So far, zilch.
2) "Low" risk -- 7 "tracking" cookies for websites I regularly use, trust, and use their cookies for personalization. Nothing at all remotely concerning.
3) "A legitimate application" -- 61 "infections" of registry entries for files needed for online gaming that I have approved through configuration of KIS 2009.

So, what's the sum total of what this grandiosely hyped program has discovered for me? NADA!

For less than 10 bucks more for a year's subscription, you can get a 3-user pack of KIS 2009 that isn't just anti-malware, -adware, -pop-ups, etc., but is also anti-virus, a powerful firewall, secures personal data, etc. AND it works with a 64-bit OS: PC Tools only works with 32-bit Vista. It may be fine for what it does, but why get only a partial anti-malware package that does no more than one that's 3 bucks more per computer and covers MANY more Internet Security issues -- no, I'm not on KIS's payroll. Just offering my experience.

The choice here is a no-brainer.

The program was quick & easy to install. It scanned my files quicker than the Norton product I have been using and found more "problems", (most of which it indicated were low risk). It also was able to fix all the problems it found. However, it decreases the speed of the computer (as other reviewers have said it seems to use a lot of memory) so much that the computer performance is unacceptable. It may work fine in a newer computer with multi core processer and 3G or 4G memory, but I would not recommend it for older computers.

Ran Adaware, and found 393 threats, but Adaware could not remove any of the threats. Ran PC Tools Spyware Doctor, and found 282 (much less than Adaware!). After cleaning the infections using Spyware Doctor, Adaware still was able to find 54 infections (using just smart scan, not full scan mode). Most people will agree that spyware detection should use multiple programs to make sure as much as possible of spyware/malware is detected, but the amount left undiscovered by Spyware Doctor seems a bit much (54 left after cleaning). This product is okay to use in conjunction with another spyware program, but definitely not as standalone. I still decided to give this program 4 stars because of the IntelliGuard protection features, among which the Keylogger Guard is valuable for blocking applications that monitor keystrokes. I've got this set to the highest protection level to ensure my personal data is safe. Another feature is the Network Guard, which I wish I had a few months ago when my network settings was hijacked and I could not access Google & Yahoo (that fix back then required editing the registry).