Others say...

"New = Improved and Faster"
Having been a big fan of Sunbelt software I decided to try CounterSpy, since it just released version 2. I had been using one of the free programs provided by a major OS manufacture. CounterSpy did a complete scan in relatively short time, found 4 infections the free software didn't (one of which was a Trojan) and provided in depth information on the newly discovered infections.
Keep in mind I have been faithfully scanning with the free software and infections got by it. So I purchased CounterSpy. It has an active protection feature that I hope will prevent further infections. But I have learned one thing. Layered protection is the only effective solution to this problem.
I highly recommend the newly improved CounterSpy.

"Malware bites! You still need AT LEAST 2 anti-spyware programs"
First, the bad news:

Based on my personal findings, you STILL NEED more than one anti-spyware program in today's PC world.


2nd, the GOOD news:
I can now see why over the past couple years or so,
Webroot's Spy-sweeper and
Sunbelt's Counterspy
- have constantly gone back and forth in winning either
1st and 2nd place for anti-spyware utilities in magaine editor reviews.

I have been using anti-malware software since the time that Xcleaner first came out. (At the time Xcleaner was one of the only tools out there to scan for malware).

I have used webroot for over 3 years now and would still recommend it.

But now that I have added Sunbelt's Counterspy to my pc, I noticed a couple items that spy-sweeper seems to have missed.

Here's my 02 cents on anti-spyware scan utilities.

1. Use at least 2 different ones, because it's now Sept 2006 and no one antispyware maker appears to have designed a
single, all-encompassing utility that finds ALL malware.

2. I use BOTH paid and free software.
Malware programs are often just as bad as, or worse than virus's.

I got over the "use FREE software only" mentality a long time ago.

For me there isn't any "free" software.

a. I'll pay the $20 bucks a year to have a retail boxed, software program find and remove malware.
b. I'll "donate" some bucks to the donation-ware (aka FREE) software if it also does the job of keeping my pc clean.

3. My personal picks for retail products:
1st place (shared) Webroot and Sunbelt
3rd place (shared) Pest Patrol and Spyware Doctor.

"Don't buy - problems"
I bought this after reading the great reviews. It does seem to do the job of removing spyware, although not much better than some freeware. BIG problem is running a scan. If you tell it to run a full scan, it goes on forever and you can't stop it. All you get is a message that Counterspy is running and please wait. In my case, 4 hours later it finally stopped. According to Tech Support, you could cause problems if you try to stop it. Silly. When you schedule a scan and tell it to do a quick scan, it does a full scan - yup, 4 hours and 20 minutes!!! Tech Support says it should take only 30-40 minutes!
Also, if you run Active Protection, Counterspy and its friends take up to 50 MB of memory.
Subjectively, Counterspy seems to slow down the computer but that may be me.

Bottom line - it MAY do the job but it is not worth it. Although I hate to say it, stick with Microsoft Defender - free and works. Counterspy is a waste of $19

"Did not remove Winantivirus spyware"
I just got off the phone with my father. Sometime last week he saw a fake system warning (displayed in a disguised browser window) from the "rogue spyware" Winantivirus 2006, and clicked the "OK" button and ended up having this spyware installed on his PC. I spent a good part of the weekend, a total of 10 hours, trying to help him remove it. He lives in a different part of the country, so it was hard for me to help him step-by-step, even though we were using Remote Assistance, which eventually was crippled by the Winantivirus spyware/trojan.

(BTW, Winantivirus is also known as Winantispyware, Winfixer and Vundo. It's *NOT* a legitimate program. It's really an adware that displays tons of pop-ups urging you to pay $50 for their phony anti-virus/anti-spyware program. The pop-ups will come up no matter which browser you use. Of course, Mac and Linux users are safe from this annoying spyware so far.)

One thing we tried last night was the 15-day trial version of Counterspy, downloaded from Cnet's download.com. It found Winantivirus, and were we thrilled. We went ahead and instructed Counterspy to clean up, and Counterspy reported it did. Then we rescanned the PC and Counterspy reported no spyware. We celebrated.

Unfortunately, prematurely. This morning when my dad turned on his PC, the same pop-ups came back -- in fact, this morning they came back with a vengeance: whereas last week it one pop-up at a time, today it was 3 or 4 at a time and when he closed on, another immediately came up. It was obvious that the Winantivirus trojan was still on his PC.

We ran Counterspy again. And again, Counterspy reported no problem with my dad's PC! We were so dismayed. I then proceeded to try to give him instructions on how to use HijackThis and to manually remove the infected files. But it was hard for him to follow my instructions over the phone, so in the end we gave up. I told him to just re-format the hard drive and re-install everything.

So, even though my experience with Counterspy centers on just one spyware program, I have to conclude that this program is useless in cleaning up infections. I have no idea if its real-time defense works or not.

Since Counterspy originated in the same technology as Microsoft's free antispyware product, you might as well just download Microsoft's version which is totally free of charge, for personal use as well as business use. Of course, I wouldn't put too much faith in that program, either.

In the end, you just have to be careful when you surf the web. Like I was telling my dad, just because a guy comes up to your door saying he's a cop, or even wearing a cop-like uniform, doesn't mean you should just let him into your house assuming he's a real cop. You'd demand some kind of legitimate ID. With pop-up windows, it's the same thing. Don't just grant "yes" or "OK" to any window that asks you to. Ask an expert friend first. Good luck!

(To manually remove Winantivirus/Vundo/Winfixer, you'll need to run HijackThis and then launch into Windows Safe Mode in command prompt. The virus attaches itself to the Winlogon.exe process, which is the program that checks your login and password. The virus is quite difficult, but not impossible, for an advanced user to delete. I had done it before on a friend's PC, sitting in front of the PC.)

"excellent"
This is probably the best antispyware I have ever used. Have tried a lot of different ones but this is by far the best.