If you follow the magazine reviews, PC Tools Spyware Doctor is one of the best detection and removal programs available, however most users do not know that the very capable Lite version is available FREE from Google. Didn't see it mentioned any where and thought I'd post and let others know. If you go to Google's 'Pack' section, which offers loads of free software, one of the programs available is Spyware Doctor. This is the same program sold retail with just a few of the live scanning options missing from the configuration menu, so it detects and removes the same threats as the full product. If you know anyone with an badly infected system, this is positively worth the download. Its saved me from having to re-install Windows XP from scratch on customer's systems numerous times.

How would you rate it to other anti-spyware/adware? Currently I use a combination of Spybot, AdAware and SpywareBlaster, the first two of which pick up the odd bit now and then and I've never really had any trouble with them. Would you say that Spyware Doctor (the Lite version) is better than these, or other comparable products (none of which spring to mind at the moment)? How about the full product? In theory a piece of software which requires paying (in some form or another) should be better than its free counterparts, but sadly (or thankfully, depending on your perspective) this isn't always the case.

The name "Doctor" implies that it can fix problems with spyware, rather than being a preventative, but does it do that as well?

I just like to get a user's perspective on a piece of software before trying it out myself if possible.

This post has been edited by Mordent: May 15 2008, 07:00 PM

I've used it a long time ago and I wasn't realy thrilled about it. It didn't find anything else that Adaware of S&D couldn't detect (and if it did detect it, it couldn't remove it because I had to pay for it).