There was a time during the Windows XP days, that after installing antivirus software, one just had to install an anti-spyware software too. The two anti-spyware which almost everyone respected were AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Over a period of time, the antivirus companies started including anti-spyware definitions and capabilities. Moreover, starting with Windows Vista, the operating system simply hardened its security, as a result of which it was not easy to install spyware or adware on Windows. As a result, people no longer needed to install separate anti-spyware software. As time passed, AdAware reportedly went on to become bloatware, and SpyBot, well, it just faded away from the memory of most people – but there were still many SpyBot fans who continued to use the freeware.
Spybot Anti-malware for Windows PC
Spybot 2 sports a new modern user interface. Apart from the regular scanning solution, Spybot now includes many new tools that can help you manage or clean up your operating system. These tools can be seen grouped in the Start Center. There are the Basic Tools and there are the Advanced Tools for experienced users. They include Startup Tools, Registry Backup & Repair Tool, Secure Shredder, OpenBSI, etc.
You can choose which tools to install during installation – but possibly because of all these tools, the size of the setup file is now 52MB!
Spybot is now more customizable and you can change its look and feel via the Settings link. It offers tons of settings that you want to have a look at, once after you have installed this software.
When the tool scans for malware, you can actually see the name of the malware for which it is currently scanning. The scan took 45 minutes in my case. The freeware now also includes a Rootkit Scan. It offers a Quick Scan and a Deep Scan too.
Once the scan is completed, you will be presented with the results.
Clicking on Fix selected will fix the identified problems. If a reboot is required, you will be asked for one.
Read: Best free Adware Removal Tools for Windows PC.
SpyBot was, and still is a very reliable and dependable security tool you want to have around on your Windows computer, as a fallback security solution. Even if you use a good security program, the security-conscious among you may like to have a second tool installed on your PC – just in case your main security software misses the malware. SpyBot will easily fit into that role.
SpyBot Free download
You can download Spybot Free from this page.
Uninstall Spybot Search and Destroy
If you wish to uninstall Spybot Search and Destroy 2 you can do so via the Control Panel easily.
Read: Spybot Identity Monitor lets you find breached online accounts
Are there any SpyBot users here? Would love to hear what you have to say about this good-old anti-malware!
I have had a rootkit recently that my free Avast! has bot blocked, and I’ve tried to remove it with several free antivirus programs. Finally, only Spybot (old version) was able to successfully remove it. Great program!
I’ve been using spybot since it was first available, still use it and still love it!
Cheers,
The icon resides permanently in the System tray now.
I don’t find the way to disable this.
Thanks for the review.
I still use Spybot, but as it does the work transparently (protecting) i did not open the interface perse. I’m glad there is a new version at last.
Spybot is crap. Get SuperAntiSpyware free edition and you’ll very happy.
To get around every having to use it make Internet Explorer or Firefox your default browser. They are the only browsers that allow you to block or allow individual cookies. I have them set up to only allow cookies from sites where I have login accounts.
These browsers do not block cookies by default. You have to set them up that way in the options > privacy tab. Type in the full URL of the cookie you want to allow in the Exceptions panel. Some pages use more than one cookie to make their pages interactive. Example: At CNN you need to type in http://www.cnn.com/ for one cookie and http://audience.cnn.com/ for their login cookie. Facebook requires three cookies, Gmail 2 etc.
Chrome also has that function but it simply does not work, it never has. I stopped getting 100 Adware Tracking Cookies a day when I uninstalled Chrome last week.
I use Avira free antivirus and SuperAntiSpyware free edition. All the others suck. :)
Try SuperAntiSpyware free edition and it will find stuff Spybot doesn’t.
The new version has some bugs. I don’t think it was ready for final release. The old version was fantastic and did what it was supposed to do. No one product will detect or block everything but Spybot S&D was always a part of the protection on my computer. I’m going back to the old version until they get this one fixed.
I just updated to Spybot 2 and it looks like a more burly program now.
I am going to miss the simple operation of 1.62, but so far it looks like you can do all the same things, just with a few more options and automation.
Acer Laptop computer came with McAfee Security Suite as a 3 month trial version which I removed. I installed Spybot – Search & Destroy 2 and then noticed an Action Center message stating that Windows Defender (the default Virus Checker replacing MS Security Essentials in Windows 8) was turned off. I tried using the Services under Administrative Tools to turn it on, but it would NOT stay turned on. I had to uninstall Spybot – Search & Destroy 2 in order to get Windows Defender to Start and run. I have now installed the old Spybot – Search & Destroy version 1.6.2 and now both applications are working properly. It appears that Spybot – Search & Destroy 2 conflicts with the default Windows Defender in Windows 8.
After using 2.0 for 3 months, it seems more and more like useless bloatware.
I’m going back to 1.62 because I could at least tell it was doing something helpful. And when they stop updating 1.62 I’ll have to find a new secondary.
Where do I find the older version I really don’t like the new version. This version doesn’t address google chrome which I use
I always get rid of my domains in my directory & it showed up in spybot 2.1, not the fun of deleting them all there useless & not needed.
Me too I find the new version of Spybot a bloat and I find it confusing too. So now I’m back with 1.6.2 and I’m really happy with it. FileHippo keeps old versions of the softwares, it’s there I downloaded it to get back to the old version.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/5168/
Thanks for the link, Taph.
I prefer the 1.6.2 version as well, unfortunately it seems the developer abandoned it. I went to update mine, and it is still running off of definitions from 2011. Go to Spybot’s site, and download the manual definitions update. Version 1.6.2 has some great features, less bloat, and as the option to scan when logging in before malware has a chance to load.
http://www.safer-networking.org/dl/
I just ran the old version of Spybot on my laptop computer. The computer shut itself off. When I tried to reboot my computer it just came on for a few seconds but never finished start up and it shut down again. Now, no matter how many times I try, it won’t even turn on a light or make any indication of having power. The only thing it could be is Spybot Search and Destroy because that is all I ran differently. It looks like my laptop is completely dead. After this I think I’m going to take the program off of all of my other computers in our home. I’m afraid to run it on anything else after this.
Download Revo Uninstaller you can remove it with advanced mode from windows registry.
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