Anti Spyware programs?

Hey gang,

I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
really liking it so far.

Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware programs.
I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
I also use Avast for my virus program.

In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot Search
and Destroy as well.
I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7 seems
like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very careful about
websites I visit.

So what do you think?




--
Don

"Don" <> wrote
> Hey gang,
>
> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
> really liking it so far.
>
> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>
> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
> Search and Destroy as well.
> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very careful
> about websites I visit.
>
> So what do you think?

Same here with AVG instead of Avast. I have installed Malwarebytes'
Anti-Malware too, but I don't have it to start with Windows, I just run a
test from time to time, and never found anything up till now. I suggest you
can do the same with Spybot without the Tea-Timer resident module, and see
what happens :-)

"Speaking in silver" <> wrote in message
news:0170acc9$0$23683$...
> "Don" <> wrote
>> Hey gang,
>>
>> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
>> really liking it so far.
>>
>> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
>> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
>> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>>
>> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
>> Search and Destroy as well.
>> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
>> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very careful
>> about websites I visit.
>>
>> So what do you think?
>
> Same here with AVG instead of Avast. I have installed Malwarebytes'
> Anti-Malware too, but I don't have it to start with Windows, I just run a
> test from time to time, and never found anything up till now. I suggest
> you can do the same with Spybot without the Tea-Timer resident module, and
> see what happens :-)

Sounds good, thanks for the info.

--
Don

Don wrote:
> Hey gang,
>
> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
> really liking it so far.
>
> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>
> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
> Search and Destroy as well.
> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very
> careful about websites I visit.
>
> So what do you think?
>

For the average home user who does primarily email, surfs the web a
little, does other typical stuff like word processing, Microsoft
Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/) is a
pretty good solution. It's free, has both an anti-virus and
anti-spyware component, does automatic updates and scans, etc.

I'm not a "softie", but over the last few years, I've installed AVG &
Windows Defender (on XP) on hundreds of customer machines; but I've
switched to using MSE as it has a smaller footprint and is simpler to
use for the less-technical user.

YMMV

-- Gary Richtmeyer

Gary Richtmeyer wrote:

> I'm not a "softie", but over the last few years, I've installed AVG &

Did you find AVG became a greater resourse hog after each upgrade? It
made my wife's older XP system pretty much unusable.

--
Enkidu AA#2165

"Enkidu" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Gary Richtmeyer wrote:
>
>> I'm not a "softie", but over the last few years, I've installed AVG &
>
> Did you find AVG became a greater resourse hog after each upgrade? It
> made my wife's older XP system pretty much unusable.
>
> --
> Enkidu AA#2165
>

I did, I used AVG for years , and switched to Avast about a year or so ago
due to that.

--
Don

"Don" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hey gang,
>
> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
> really liking it so far.
>
> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>
> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
> Search and Destroy as well.
> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very
> careful about websites I visit.
>
> So what do you think?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Don


IMO:

Microsoft Security Essentials (Included Defender):
http://www.microsoft.com/security_es...s/default.aspx

SpywareBlaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

And on the side.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.40
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes...-10804572.html
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

On 12/18/2009 9:24 PM, Bruce Hagen wrote:
>
> "Don" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hey gang,
>>
>> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
>> really liking it so far.
>>
>> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
>> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
>> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>>
>> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
>> Search and Destroy as well.
>> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
>> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very
>> careful about websites I visit.
>>
>> So what do you think?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Don
>
>
> IMO:
>
> Microsoft Security Essentials (Included Defender):
> http://www.microsoft.com/security_es...s/default.aspx
>
> SpywareBlaster:
> http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
>
> And on the side.
>
> Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.40
> http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes...-10804572.html

I have this one running also. It checks for behaviors that look
suspicious. Has good reviews.

http://www.threatfire.com/

Jim

"Don" <> wrote in
news::

> Hey gang,
>
> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
> really liking it so far.
>
> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>
> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
> Search and Destroy as well.
> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very
> careful about websites I visit.
>
> So what do you think?


From the first 8 replies...

I haven't run a virus protection program in 10 years. And haven't had a
virus in them there years.

I use SpywareBlaster and the Spybot Search and Destroy softwares every
day.

Antivirus softwares are more a malware, imho.

Comcast offers free McAfee anti-virus. Sony vaio win7(64) came with
Norton anti-virus. Problem is they are background AND alert interrupting
AND email intrusive, which is why I declare them malware. No harm, just
intrusive into my computing experience, again, imho. Not using them has
caused me NO virii.

Andy

On 12/18/2009 08:57 PM, Don wrote:
> Hey gang,
>
> I have been running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium since Monday, and am
> really liking it so far.
>
> Just curious what others think about the necessity for any spyware
> programs. I know Windows 7 has Defender, and of course the firewall.
> I also use Avast for my virus program.
>
> In previous versions of Windows, I would normally also run say Spybot
> Search and Destroy as well.
> I am wondering if the additional ones are really necessary now, Win 7
> seems like it is probably pretty secure. Plus I am generally very
> careful about websites I visit.
>
> So what do you think?
>
>
>
>
If you run Firefox with No Script add on you should be safe.