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PC Tools PC Tools Spyware Doctor

85

Very Good

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Pros
Excellent rootkit detection
Cons
Alarmist initial scan results

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.8 Review

by Narasu Rebbapragada

- PC Tools' Spyware Doctor 3.8 offers solid protection against adware, spyware, and rootkits in an easy-to-use and feature-rich interface. The company releases frequent product upgrades, which come with the $30 annual subscription fee. As a result, we performance-tested version 3.8 of the product and then user-tested version 4.0.

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User Reviews for PC Tools PC Tools Spyware Doctor

Reviewed by: glwilson8338

Duration of ownership: 1 Week

Strengths: easy download; effective against most malware

Weaknesses: Not effective against k8l.info source Trojan Downloader

Overall Evaluation: SD was not able to remove or successfully quarantine the k8l.info Trojan Downloader or prevent the installation of Browser helper object Add-on DLL files in IE7 when the PC was rebooted after the removal attempt was done. SD knew the infection was there, but would report that some files could not be removed without reboot; upon reboot to SAFE mode with internet connection disabled, SD conducted a new search for malware, but the same iterative process would be duplicated.
Reviewed by: leroy1938

Duration of ownership: 10 Days

Strengths: It removed spyware that other software seemed to have missed, it was fast while the scanning and cleaning up the hard drive has good setting and control

Weaknesses: Slowed down my computed very noticeable. it would not let me open some email, notice warned me I was low on memory

Overall Evaluation: The new Spyware Doctor, while active and enabled, has slowed application startups to a crawl. Outlook Express takes 45 seconds to open. About the same with Word. If I exit or disable Spyware Doctor, it's back to full speed ahead. I'm sorely disappointed. Now, I keep Spyware Doctor disabled and load it once a week, update it (which requires a reboot each time) and then run an intelli-scan.

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