Best antispyware application for Vista?

[Acanthus]

Ive always liked adaware, but it seems to crash a lot in vista ultimate.

Does anyone know of a good spyware scanner/remover for Vista + IE7?

 

[alpha88]

On a serious note, I have Vista Ultimate and IE7, Outlook 2007.

How do you even get spyware in the first place?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Ive always liked adaware, but it seems to crash a lot in vista ultimate.

Does anyone know of a good spyware scanner/remover for Vista + IE7?

NAV or NIS 2007.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know that they're the best, but I use Spywareblaster, and Spybot S&D. I never have have problems with spyware. I like the passive immunization features they have. I figure it's best to prevent problems in the first place, than to fix them later.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Ive always liked adaware, but it seems to crash a lot in vista ultimate.

Does anyone know of a good spyware scanner/remover for Vista + IE7?

NAV or NIS 2007.

Absolutely terrible, and they cost money.

Norton acts more like a virus than viruses... Try removing it.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: alpha88
On a serious note, I have Vista Ultimate and IE7, Outlook 2007.

How do you even get spyware in the first place?

Browsing the internet on IE7.

 

[bsobel]

Absolutely terrible, and they cost money.

I won't argue that the 2004/2005 versions got bloated, the 2007 version got back to its roots and is extremely more performant than those versions and most other offerings in the market (honestly!). In fact, it's a lot of the feedback from here about those performance problems that went straight to development for them to fix. The whole release was built around size/speed and Vista compat.

Regarding the second statement, well, you didn't say free

 

[bsobel]

Browsing the internet on IE7.

Do you have UAC enabled? If so, with IE's restricted mode you really shouldn't be seeing much (as of the current threat landscape). If you turned UAC off, well, then your back to XP level of protection.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: alpha88
On a serious note, I have Vista Ultimate and IE7, Outlook 2007.

How do you even get spyware in the first place?

Browsing the internet on IE7.

Unlikely if you are running the latest version of all your installed software (including IE / Windows Updates) in a limited user account with common sense.

See if your installed software is up to date with Secunia Inspector

Learn about limited user accounts from mechBgon

Look at virus detection rate tests in The Antivirus Detection Rate Thread

Currently one of the best spyware removal application for Vista (x32) is SuperAntiSpyware. The free edition does not have realtime proteciton, but still removes and detects the malware with an excellent detection rate.

 

[destrekor]

just setup Windows Defender

here's my setup: (vista 64bit)
UAC on
non-administrator account
windows defender
avg antivirus
firefox

not a thing happens. I also have adblock plus with automatic updates installed. my vista system is so perfectly clean right now, and its going to stay that way. I kind of let my install of XP go a little bit, and it got a little sloppy and slow, which made it a perfect time to just go ahead and install Vista. Haven't looked back since.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: alpha88
On a serious note, I have Vista Ultimate and IE7, Outlook 2007.

How do you even get spyware in the first place?

Browsing the internet on IE7.

Unlikely if you are running the latest version of all your installed software (including IE / Windows Updates) in a limited user account with common sense.

See if your installed software is up to date with Secunia Inspector

Learn about limited user accounts from mechBgon

Look at virus detection rate tests in The Antivirus Detection Rate Thread

Currently one of the best spyware removal application for Vista (x32) is SuperAntiSpyware. The free edition does not have realtime proteciton, but still removes and detects the malware with an excellent detection rate.

Thanks for the all of the AV references guys, but im fine on virus scanning. I only need a spyware scanner to ditch all of the tracking cookies.

I run as admin for convenience, and UAC sucks so yes it is off.

This is my house, not a corporate environment

I will give superantispyware a shot.

 

[Arcex]

Another decent spyware program is Webroot Spysweeper, Defender is good to (and free).

 

[Acanthus]

superantispyware was actually pretty good, and as i suspected, IE7 only really allows tracking cookies nowadays, nothing critical.

99 tracking cookies removed on a full scan, everything seems smooth now.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
superantispyware was actually pretty good, and as i suspected, IE7 only really allows tracking cookies nowadays, nothing critical.

99 tracking cookies removed on a full scan, everything seems smooth now.

SpywareBlaster prevents them

 

[LOUISSSSS]

cool, just dl'ed and running Spyware Blaster and SUPERANTISPYWARE, does anybody recommend anything else to protect Vista-32bit besides that, spyware blaster, and AVG?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Acanthus
superantispyware was actually pretty good, and as i suspected, IE7 only really allows tracking cookies nowadays, nothing critical.

99 tracking cookies removed on a full scan, everything seems smooth now.

SpywareBlaster prevents them

Also, just go to the Internet Options panel, hit Privacy, set the slider to Medium-High, then hit the Advanced button. Override automagic cookie handling, allow first-party cookies and block third-party cookies.

My malware-hunting user account goes to the nastiest sites I can find (with IE7 in Protected Mode, which requires UAC be enabled) and even Ad-Aware, Supreme Potentate of Tracking-Cookie Alarms?, finds little or nothing to gripe about after days of exposure. Not that cookies are a big deal IMO, but whatever... I wanted to see what the results would be. Well, now I know, and Ad-Aware is not installed anymore.

does anybody recommend anything else to protect Vista-32bit besides that, spyware blaster, and AVG?

Yeah. Enable UAC and see these other suggestions: http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security2.html

This is my house, not a corporate environment

I'm sorry, but I have to say it: you just asked for a good antispyware program, but you don't want UAC turned on?

< Spock > It is not logical, Captain. < / Spock >

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i just went to take a look at my firewall settings and found that my Vista 32-bit firewall was turned off, just had to turn it on... but im' 100% sure i did the same thing like 2 weeks ago, whats making my firewall go back to disabled?

 

[dandragonrage]

AVG sucks. One of the worst AVs you can get. Avira and Avast have better free products.

 

[zig3695]

antivir is goodness. the popup to buy is a bit annoying though...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: zig3695
antivir is goodness. the popup to buy is a bit annoying though...

Forum member John can help you with that.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

hmm lets have a small poll guys. AVG or AVAST? both the home, free version, which is better?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
hmm lets have a small poll guys. AVG or AVAST? both the home, free version, which is better?

What about AntiVir, would you consider that? If so, that gets my vote over the other two.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

oh? what makes antiVir better than those 2? and where can i get it free?

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
oh? what makes antiVir better than those 2? and where can i get it free?

Don't know about Avast, but Antivir has a much better detection rate than AVG.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
oh? what makes antiVir better than those 2? and where can i get it free?

Higher detection rate

Download Antivir Personal (free) Edition