Customer Reviews

Spyware Doctor 2006 [Old Version]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Before I bought Spyware Doctor my computer was absurdly infested with spyware. There were pop up ads jumping up all over the place and as soon as I closed one, another would appear. My computer was almost unusable.

It was a mess.

Spyware Doctor got rid of them all.

I have now set SD to automatically scan my system once a day. It has been almost one year since I installed this product and I have experienced only one infection. SD removed that infection the next time it ran. One of the reasons that re-infections are so infrequent is apparently due to "On Guard". "On Guard" is the part of Spyware Doctor which prevents spyware from even being loaded onto your computer in the first place. It tracks suspicious activity and blocks unwanted interference with your computer before it starts. "On Guard" can actually disable programs that you, in fact, want to run. This happened to me. I use a system wide macro program that "On Guard" found to be suspicious and blocked. However, the program allows you configure "On Guard" to allow your computer to run what would otherwise look like a suspicious program. I did that and my macro program ran fine.

Spyware Doctor also does a good job of blocking pop up windows in Internet Explorer, but it does not yet work with Firefox.

Overall, I am very, very pleased with the product. The one problem that I have with SD is minor. When the product needs to update, it often causes your browser and / or your email client to freeze up. When that happens you have to reboot, run the update and then start your browser and email client again.

Other than that, this software works great.

Like most of the software reviewers on this site, I can only base my review of this product on my sole experience with it. So that is what you'll get. Now given, I have a considerably high end computer so keep that in mind. All that aside, I'll start my review.

First things first... I'm convinced that Spyware Doctor is among the best of the best when it comes to Spyware/adware/ect removal. I've used all the good ones for some time now. Ad-aware, Spysweer, Spybot, and even some lesser known programs such as Hijack This. I've learned a lot about Spyware in the process. But I'll skip the long end of it and get to the point. Chances are very good (9/10) that you have spyware on your computer. Whether you know it or not. Also, chances are that if your reading this, you want to get rid of it. Whether it be a pesky cookie tracker or a full blown trojan...

So allow me to give you the straight facts. There is no single anti-spyware program out there that will have you 100% protected. I know. I know. You heard that Norton anti-vir/internet security is the best top dollar software you can get and there is no better protection. I say bull crap. Big name software companies like Symantec and Mcaffee are ALL talk. I have used norton and I can safely say it did me much more harm than good. (it uses up way too many system resources for one thing) I realize we can't all be computer wizzes. (which I know I certainly am not) But, spending 50+ dollars on something like Norton software is not a good investment.

So now your probably wondering what IS a good investment. Since this review is about Spyware Doctor, I'll start with it. You can get this software for half of what Norton costs and it's 10 times more effective, I assure you. It's faster and gets way more stuff detected. Not only does SD present it's search finds in an easy to understand manor, but it's also loaded with extra features like on-guard protection and quarantine. I can also say that it fins a lot more than most programs of it's caliber.

But, like I said earlier there is no single program that will completely rid you of spyware. That's why your need to buy this download/buy two or more of the following:

Webroot Spysweeper
Ad-aware SE personal (free)
Spybot (free)
yahoo anti-spy (free)

I also recommend your scan with these once a week because well, spyware never sleeps and you shouldn't either.

I build computers and I troubleshoot computers every day and this is the choice of spyware remover I tell people to get.


If you got an older computer don't try the active protection but any one with a computer that came with Xp pro should be fine. You have to have at least 256+ MB of ram the minimum I recommend is 512mb. But I have this works perfectly fine. No gliching no slow down. Other people that reviewed are not computer savvy to a point. Like they know how to use it but not properly. You never click on popup adds! ads on pages and anything that says free in it will give you spyware. If you already got a lot a virus's which the 2 negative reviews probably had the active scanner will of course slow down the computer. Ether there computer is to slow has to many programs starting up at once or already been infested with Viruses,spyware...ect This spyware remover is one of the best but there are new spyware that comes out every day that you may get that this cant remove. but its the same thing with every program. Just update the program weekly, do a scan weekly and you should be ok.

After hearing a co-worker raving about this product, I decided to give it a shot. I already have Adaware and Spyware Remover on my computer, which do a pretty good job of catching and removing annoying cookies but didn't seem to find much spyware. So I downloaded Spyware Doctor on my new Dell which runs Windows XP, installed it (no problem) and ran it to see how it worked. Wowie-kazowie! It identifed over 200 pieces of spyware my old spyware program never caught. Now to get rid of them... seems that if I want to get rid of these pesky critters, I have to purchase the product. But any product that finds spyware that efficiently and thoroughly seemed like a good deal, so I bought Spyware Doctor with my credit card, received an order number and a license number by return e-mail within five minutes, typed the license number into the registration form, and I was off and running. Spyware Doctor cleaned my computer like a runaway vacuum cleaner and left it positively pristine. I'm set for the life of my 'puter, I thought.

Yeah, right.

Next time I booted up my computer, and the next dozen or so times after that, Spyware Doctor simply would not load. When I tried to open it I got an error message, "Access denied". Say, WHAT? I thought, I PAID for this thing! I e-mailed the error message to PCtools.com, which, by the way, never sent me a response, and figured if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. After what seemed like a bajillion infuriating attempts, the program finally loaded and did another competent job of cleaning spyware off my computer. But if I had to go through all that aggravation every time I wanted to use it, I started wondering if it was worth it.

On top of that, everything on my computer started running slower. Spyware doctor made the computer take longer to boot up, it tried to disable my firewall, and it did a very competent job of locking up my screen saver, so that whenever my screen saver kicked in I had to reboot the computer. And it still loaded when it damn well pleased, which was only about one third of the time.

After a week of this I was ready to drop-kick the computer through the window but figured it would be simpler and more sensible simply to uninstall Spyware Doctor and get my money back. I logged onto PCTools web site and got connected to live tech support, which promised to refund my money within two weeks, and sent me not one, but two e-mails confirming the refund. Well, at least something at PCTools works.

Actually, when Spyware Doctor does work, it does one hell of a job cleaning your computer. The problem is, it works when it wants to, and after the initial installation, it wants to less and less. I've never seen a program so frustrating to deal with. I like a squeaky-clean drive as much as anyone, but not at the price of my sanity.

So now I'm back to Adaware plus Microsoft Anti-spyware, and if I've got some spyware lurking around in there, it will damn will stay there until I find a program that does a competent job of finding and removing it without creating havoc elsewhere on my computer. PCTools has a great idea, but they have some major glitches to deal with before their product realizes its promise.

Judy Lind

Last weekend, I was having a devilish time fixing a friend's computer. I used these Spyware removal tools: Adaware, Spybot, Hijack This, Symantech, McAfee, and Registry Fix. They cleaned 99% of the spyware out of the computer. But none of them could touch the WinToolsA and WinToolsB that were infecting the machine.
Some of those programs found the WinTools viruses, but could not remove the files or registry entries. I finally dug down into the directories and tried to remove the WinTools viruses by deleting the files myself. That did not work; I got the message that I could not delete the files because they were being used. Drat!
At this point, I was about six hours into my quest. In exasperation, I bought and tried Spyware Doc. I had to scan and fix with Spyware three times. It took an hour! But at last...Huzzah! The viruses were finally removed.
I wish I had simply started my process with Spyware Doc. I could have saved a lot of time. It is NOW my favorite Spyware remover. The others are secondary.
So I reluctanly rate it the best...over all my old sentimental favorites.
Chris

This program ran the first time, afterwards it failed on the splash screen (97% CPU usage makes for a loud spinning fan).

It was difficult to get the program to uninstall (the uninstaller in Add or Remove Programs did not work). When the uninstaller finished, it opened my web browser without my consent and navigated to their home page. This is what initiated me to write this review. After the program uninstalls, the entries it leaves behind cannot be easily removed. Even Unlocker couldn't delete the "Spyware Doctor" directory from {%SystemRoot%/Program Files/Spyware Doctor}. After uninstalling, something like "Spyware Doctor has been completely removed from your computer." came up. Since I already knew this was not true, I wound up manually removing components by extracting the setup file (from sdsetup.exe) and reading the Inno setup script (install_script.iss). That I would have to do such a thing is unacceptable to me!

Also, if you have customized settings on your computer, this program will set them to default. It took a lot of time for me to redo my computer, and I ended up having to install Windows XP again (erasing everything).

When it did work, I had similar, as well as additional, problems to other reviewers.

All files that this program scans for can be detected and removed using free resources from places like Softpedia. Try navigating to the Security section and sorting by Freeware & Rating (descending order).

Just bought a new Dell because I was told my old one was running slow because of spyware corruption and doubling the memory on my old one wouldn't really speed it up--so I wanted to protect the new computer from spyware and bought spyware doctor for $30 dollars. I ran it on my old machine and it removed 200 separate items (cookies, trojans, etc.)that my old spyware program never found. It catches new things daily on my new machine. And the speed of my operating system is great. So for $30 bucks, I think tbhis is a great investment not only to keep your machine running smoothly but to protect against identity theft.

Here is a product from a company that is better known for their registry cleaning tool Registry Mechanic. Spyware Doctor doesn't fall short. I know someone who had been using AdAware for quite sometime. The free Adaware is a good program but it is slow. On one computer where a search for anti-spyware was being made it would simply hang the PC when an attempt was made to minimize or close the application. Only a reboot would fix the problem. The free Spybot Search and Destroy is also a slow program. Both searching and fixing problems as well as for downloading updates can take time. However Spyware Doctor isn't. The program is zippy fast and constantly pops messages prompting you to take necessary action. As other reviewers have reported, it located spyware that both AdAware and Spybot had missed. Updates are automatically detected and are a breeze to download. If you are thinking of a better anti-spyware program or are thinking of making a switch from AdAware or Spybot Search and Destroy check out Spyware Doctor. It has a good (if not the best) rating on CNet.com.

I'd been using Ad-Aware SE Personal for over a year. It had never found any spyware, just cookies. Based on PC Magazine's review, I decided to download the Spyware Doctor free scan. It found 9 spyware programs plus a ton of cookies, incentive enough to purchase the program which allows you to enable the removal and other features. That seemed to go ok. Trouble started with the next boot-up. Boot time increased dramatically, I guess because I checked the box that starts Spyware Doctor (which is very slow booting) along with Windows. Not a big problem. IE came up normally but I noticed that the cursor would sometimes freeze with no indication of why. Again, I assume On Guard was dealing with a cookie in real time. Would have been nice to have an on-screen indication but it did display a pop-up showing what had been done after the fact. Big problems started when opening Outlook Express. It came up very slowly and sometimes not at all. After waiting several minutes the screen would flash and return to the previous page. Other times the system would hang. The cursor would move but mouse clicks wouldn't close or open any window or program. The only way to regain control was manual power down. The situation got so bad that I decided to remove Spyware Doctor and do a system restore to a pre SD date. Thankfully this returned my system to normal operation. Being only slightly computer savy, I decided to cut my losses and take advantage of PC Tools money back guarantee. It took 4 emails and a weeks time but I finally managed to get a return authorization code and subsequent refund.

Was it a conflict with another program or ?? I'm not savy enough to understand or correct the problems it seemed to create. On the other hand anti-spyware, which experts agree everyone should be using, should not require an expert to use. It does point out the wisdom of establishing a restore point before loading new software.

It did seem to identify things Ad-Aware missed but the negative affect on my system was worse than the cure. If it doesn't cause you trouble it's probably a good program but be warned and set a restore point first!

When I installed Spyware Doctor, that is exactly what it did - slooooowed me down. It hung up on the first scan - not a good sign, but then worked on the second attempt. I believe this to be a very good program for preventing spyware on you computer, but there are some big caveats. With OnGuard background monitoring activated, it used about 95% of CPU resources. Obviously I couldn't do anything else with my system. I turned off OnGuard and things seemed ok for awhile. Even with this turned off and all automatic scanning disabled, every so often the program did something in the background which utilized around 95% of my CPU. Again I couldn't do anything else.

It also appears to conflict with my McAfee antivirus program. Every time I shut down the computer there is one or two McAfee programs that now do not shutdown properly.

The box says it will run on a 60MHz Pentium with 128MB of RAM. This is absolutely false. This is worse advertising than Microsoft. I am using an older computer that has a 1.2GHz Athlon and 512MB of memory, and I simply cannot run this on my computer. I have disabled everything even automatic updates. This, of course, eliminates much of the benefits of having the program. When I want to scan, I will have to wait until I am ready to shutdown my computer, start the program, get the latest updates, run a scan and then shutdown - really!