Showdown: Spyware Search & Destroy SHAMED by Super Utilities for me today

G

guybannister58

Until a few minutes ago I used SS&D regularly for at leats a year or
so. Then, perhaps 20 minutes ago, I scanned my system with the spyware
detection and removal utility of the trial version of Super Utilties
(ver. 6.25) -- it found 49 instances of spyware! Before removing the 49
instances, however, I AGAIN ran my SS&D -- as usual, it detected that
my Windows Firewal was off as well as, on this occasion, an instance of
Casal Media spyware. Disturbingly (in contrast to what Super Utilities
had found, *that* was *ALL* it detected.

I realize SS&D is free (ironically, I almost sent in a small donation a
few days ago but was too lazy -- now I WON'T) and that my copy of SU
will expire in less than 2 weeks, but JAYSUS!: compared to the *49*
spywares found by SU versus SS&D's pathetic *1* I'd have to say that
SS&D (for me, anyway) although free is virtually WORTHLESS.

I'd like to hear from others who've used/continue to use SS&D -- have
you ever compared it to other spyware killers? Did you find it as
lacking as I did or do you feel confident, based one xperience, in
saying it's compretitive with other anti-spyware apps?
 
Y

YoKenny

(e-mail address removed) typed:
Until a few minutes ago I used SS&D regularly for at leats a year or
so. Then, perhaps 20 minutes ago, I scanned my system with the spyware
detection and removal utility of the trial version of Super Utilties
(ver. 6.25) -- it found 49 instances of spyware! Before removing the
49 instances, however, I AGAIN ran my SS&D -- as usual, it detected
that my Windows Firewal was off as well as, on this occasion, an
instance of Casal Media spyware. Disturbingly (in contrast to what
Super Utilities had found, *that* was *ALL* it detected.

I realize SS&D is free (ironically, I almost sent in a small donation
a few days ago but was too lazy -- now I WON'T) and that my copy of SU
will expire in less than 2 weeks, but JAYSUS!: compared to the *49*
spywares found by SU versus SS&D's pathetic *1* I'd have to say that
SS&D (for me, anyway) although free is virtually WORTHLESS.

I'd like to hear from others who've used/continue to use SS&D -- have
you ever compared it to other spyware killers? Did you find it as
lacking as I did or do you feel confident, based one xperience, in
saying it's compretitive with other anti-spyware apps?
Click to expand...

Anything from an AOL luser is worthless spam except for some sites I got for
my HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 mastara.seeq.com
127.0.0.1 www .regnow.com <== remove space to inhibit affiliate marketer
site
 
A

Art

Until a few minutes ago I used SS&D regularly for at leats a year or
so. Then, perhaps 20 minutes ago, I scanned my system with the spyware
detection and removal utility of the trial version of Super Utilties
(ver. 6.25) -- it found 49 instances of spyware! Before removing the 49
instances, however, I AGAIN ran my SS&D -- as usual, it detected that
my Windows Firewal was off as well as, on this occasion, an instance of
Casal Media spyware. Disturbingly (in contrast to what Super Utilities
had found, *that* was *ALL* it detected.

I realize SS&D is free (ironically, I almost sent in a small donation a
few days ago but was too lazy -- now I WON'T) and that my copy of SU
will expire in less than 2 weeks, but JAYSUS!: compared to the *49*
spywares found by SU versus SS&D's pathetic *1* I'd have to say that
SS&D (for me, anyway) although free is virtually WORTHLESS.

I'd like to hear from others who've used/continue to use SS&D -- have
you ever compared it to other spyware killers? Did you find it as
lacking as I did or do you feel confident, based one xperience, in
saying it's compretitive with other anti-spyware apps?
Click to expand...

The problem here is that you've not established that SS&D is lacking
since you've not established that SU isn't false reporting. So far as
I can find, SU doesn't appear on either the lists of "trustworthy"
apps nor the list of rouge apps at this site:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy

I tried SU and it reported two IE related items in my registry.
Whether or not these items are "for real" I don't know. At least
it didn't produce a long list of suspicious reports. Nor did it
produce a list of useless tracking cookies reports. Based on that, it
would seem that perhaps many of the 49 alleged spywares it found on
your PC may be legit findings and not purely fabrications. One thing
that bothered me about SU is that it currently only has a little over
5,000 sigs. That doesn't strike me as a particularly large data base.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
B

Bill

I'd like to hear from others who've used/continue to use SS&D -- have
you ever compared it to other spyware killers? Did you find it as
lacking as I did or do you feel confident, based one xperience, in
saying it's compretitive with other anti-spyware apps?
Click to expand...

It has been no secret for some time that SS&D pretty much sucks. I
replaced it long ago with Webroot Spy Sweeper. It's not free but seldom
is anything worth using without cost.
 
J

jm

Until a few minutes ago I used SS&D regularly for at leats a year or
so. Then, perhaps 20 minutes ago, I scanned my system with the spyware
detection and removal utility of the trial version of Super Utilties
(ver. 6.25) -- it found 49 instances of spyware! Before removing the 49
instances, however, I AGAIN ran my SS&D -- as usual, it detected that
my Windows Firewal was off as well as, on this occasion, an instance of
Casal Media spyware. Disturbingly (in contrast to what Super Utilities
had found, *that* was *ALL* it detected.

I realize SS&D is free (ironically, I almost sent in a small donation a
few days ago but was too lazy -- now I WON'T) and that my copy of SU
will expire in less than 2 weeks, but JAYSUS!: compared to the *49*
spywares found by SU versus SS&D's pathetic *1* I'd have to say that
SS&D (for me, anyway) although free is virtually WORTHLESS.

I'd like to hear from others who've used/continue to use SS&D -- have
you ever compared it to other spyware killers? Did you find it as
lacking as I did or do you feel confident, based one xperience, in
saying it's compretitive with other anti-spyware apps?
Click to expand...

It takes a lot of R&D to make an effective security product. I don't
like to knock Spybot, as it has helped a lot of people and is developed
by people who do it for the good of the community, not for money, but
it's hard to see how it can keep up with the commercial products.

On the other hand, just because a product says that it finds problems,
it doesn't mean that they really exist. It's a common scam for a
software demo to say there are problems on a PC, and you have to buy
the full version to fix them. Take a look at the Rogue/Suspect
Anti-Spyware List at
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#products and you
will see that there are many products like that. SuperUtilities isn't
on that list, and I'm not saying it belongs thare, but I'd prefer to
believe a product that I trust.

I've tested Spy Sweeper (http://www.tech-pro.net/spy-sweeper.html) and
Spyware Doctor (http://www.tech-pro.net/spyware-doctor.html) and they
are among the best, as proved by many magazine reviews.

The PC Guru: ww.the-pc-guru.com
 
G

guybannister58

Art said:
The problem here is that you've not established that SS&D is lacking
since you've not established that SU isn't false reporting. So far as
I can find, SU doesn't appear on either the lists of "trustworthy"
apps nor the list of rouge apps at this site:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy
Click to expand...

Whattya know? An *intelligent* reply (actually this is but the 2nd
reply to my post that I've read -- the first was merely a generic,
embarrasingy unoriginal anti-AOL scrawl.)

But point taken, Art -- I admittedly didn't consider the possibiity
of false-positives from SU (although, I hasten to add, to its credit
the app did provide cite the specific alleged-spyware files'
locations.)
I tried SU and it reported two IE related items in my registry.
Whether or not these items are "for real" I don't know. At least
it didn't produce a long list of suspicious reports. Nor did it
produce a list of useless tracking cookies reports. Based on that, it
would seem that perhaps many of the 49 alleged spywares it found on
your PC may be legit findings and not purely fabrications.
Click to expand...

Hopefully others will provide some additional anecdotal reports on
this.
One thing
that bothered me about SU is that it currently only has a little over
5,000 sigs. That doesn't strike me as a particularly large data base.
Click to expand...

Another good point. Tx!
 
D

Dustin Cook

It takes a lot of R&D to make an effective security product. I don't
like to knock Spybot, as it has helped a lot of people and is developed
by people who do it for the good of the community, not for money, but
it's hard to see how it can keep up with the commercial products.
Click to expand...


I wouldn't put all my faith in the commercial products either, nor would
I exactly trust magazine reviews of such software. The magazines don't
typically do any better a job of comparisons with antispyware apps then
they do with antivirus ones.

SpybotSD isn't a bad program, it's good for it's intended purpose. It
makes no claim to get all of the spyware out there.

Suffice to say, no one program is going to get everything.
 
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