More Microsoft reviews , RRP: Free
Windows Defender is free and therefore should be a part of your desktop antispyware collection. Still, it's best to get a second opinion, probably from your name-brand antivirus-plus-software application.
This year's update to user favourite Ad-Aware is quite a significant overhaul, and the result is faster scan times and a new interface.
AVG Internet Security 8.0 provides strong protection against malicious Web sites, but its full-system scans sometimes tax system resources and produce false positives.
In its first appearance, CounterSpy was the only antispyware product that correctly identified every piece of spyware in our current active-detection test.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2007 came in dead last in our CNET antispyware testing. Ad-Aware failed to detect half of the test spyware, and unlike nine out of the 10 other antispyware apps we reviewed in December 2007, left behind traces for all but one spyware.
While Symantec's protection is solid, the overall user experience within Norton Internet Security 2008 could be much, much better. Not all the features work together and use fewer system resources.
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