You've installed a firewall and anti-virus tool, but does that mean that you're safe online? Unfortunately, no. Spyware, browser hijackers and another annoyances still have many ways to infest your PC, and that's why it's worth having a dedicated spyware tool to remove them.
There's no particular need to pay for one, of course: comprehensive tools such as Ad-Aware SE Personal are available for free. So we wondered if Spyware Doctor was so effective that we'd be persuaded to part with our £16. We ran the two against each other to find out.
The bare statistics of our first test didn't look good. Spyware Doctor has fewer signatures in its database (26,840 when we tested, against 30,122 for Ad-Aware). Furthermore, running a Quick Scan in Spyware Doctor took over 25 minutes, while Ad-Aware's Smart System Scan was complete in under six.
Signature totals don't tell you everything. Although Spyware Doctor was slow, that's partly because it scanned more objects (148,507 against 89,816 for Ad-Aware). As it claimed to detect 1,141 problems, while Ad-Aware only managed 146, was the extra time well spent?
To remove spyware successfully, you first have to detect it, and that makes the total number of threats you discover particularly important. Does that mean Spyware Doctor wins, as it lists 1,141 infections detected? Not necessarily, because on checking the scan report, we found that count included multiple entries for the same threat.
So, for example, Spyware Doctor told us that NS Keylogger had been found on our system, and that installation included 215 different Registry keys. It then counted these as 215 of the infections, even though - as far as you're concerned - it's just discovered one program.
Safe or suspect?
Then we decided to check whether or not this keylogger was installed at all. On closer examination that's not entirely clear. Spyware Doctor identified it as present in what we believed to be a legitimate file called jmail.dll, and its associated Registry entries. Ad-aware didn't pick this up, Norton AntiVirus saw no problems here and Googling for the ActiveX control class IDs didn't reveal anyone else thinking they were a risk.
Furthermore, another innocent program was identified as backdoor Trojan IRC.Comiz by Spyware Doctor but not Ad-Aware or Norton AntiVirus. It began to look like the scans weren't entirely accurate. Could Spyware Doctor win us over with its final trick?
