Brief poll and anti-spyware question...

[George]

Wondered if anyone has a definitive answer on what McAfee VirusScan ONLINE
does about spyware/adware. Here's situation:

Am unsing a Dell 8250, and use the Dell Security Center.which is really the
McAfee VirusScan Online product. I pay maybe $70 per year for this
subscription. It automatially updates via the web, seems to work great.

When I click the red-M, then click VirusScan and click SCAN MY PC FOR
VIRUSES, one of the option boxes I can check is "[X] Scan for potentially
unwanted applications". Is this ANTI-SPYWARE capability? McAfee says it
WILL detect spyware but the online version won't clean it off. Is this
true? Do I need to purchase SEPARATE Anti-Spyware like McAfees separate
product, or one of the more famous ones. SpyBot or Adware?

So far, my McAfee VirusScan online has NEVER found any spyware at all on my
PC. I find that hard to believe since I've had this PC almost a year and
its connected via DSL to Internet most of the time.

Would appreciate any insights, thanks

 

[Jym]

I do not think the antivirus software is designed to find and remove spyware
, (tracking cookies is spyware). If you are on the web a lot you probably
have hundreds of these tracking cookies ( which advertiser use to advertise
the "right " products to you ) and other much worse spy programs that can
interfere with the operation of your system.Adaware is free and it is
designed to find and remove all types of spyware. My advice is to run both
and keep them updated. Jym

 

[roger]

Hi George,

There are at least two great anti-spyware programs for free, ad-aware
and spybot, what one doesn't find, the other will.
Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

Spybot S&D
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Good luck