In the ever-changing world of spyware and malware, it is critically important to have some sort of protection software installed on your PC. Recently, I decided to take a look at the latest version of Spyware Doctor to see how the software performed compared to some of the many other spyware removal programs out there today.
Let me start off by pointing out that Spyware Doctor is a commercial product and is not free. Many people make the automatic assumption that because software is not free, it will be better at detecting and removing those pesky spyware files from Windows. Spyware Doctor is a good example of a product that disproves that assumption. The software costs $29.95 for a single license and although its maker, PCTools, offers a free trial of the product, the trial is not fully functional and will only detect spyware, not remove it. Pretty useless trial, huh?
The user interface of Spyware Doctor is relatively straight-forward and easy to use. Users are able to quickly find and access all of the programs features without a lot of help. In addition to the software’s spyware scanning and removal tool, other features include system immunization and real-time monitoring. There is also a built-in scheduler feature that allows you to automate full-system scans and program updates.
One of the more annoying aspects of Spyware Doctor is the seemingly constant barrage of pop-up dialog boxes informing the user of minor operational details while the program was running in the background. The program seemed to display many more of these informational pop-ups than other spyware programs I’ve used. System scans are generally fast, but the program consumes significantly more of your system resources than some of its peers. Antirootkit capabilities are included in the program, but are disabled by default.
The real problem with Spyware Doctor lies in its poor performance. Testing of the software’s spyware detection capabilities resulted in the program finding only 50%-70% of spyware on the test system. That means that in some cases, as much as half of the spyware files were not identified. Furthermore, the software did a poor job of removing the spyware that it did find. The majority of the identified spyware still had some traces remaining even after Spyware Doctor supposedly removed the files. This sort of performance would not be acceptable with a free antispyware program, so the fact that PCTools charges for Spyware Doctor makes it that much worse.
The bottom line with Spyware Doctor is that it just isn’t worth your time (and certainly not your money) to bother with. There are many other software titles available, both commercial and free, that do a lot more for a lot less. PCTools has a long way to go before Spyware Doctor is ready to compete with its better rivals.
Yes.. Spyware Doctor it’s great! It’s on my top list. Thanx for sharing.