Free Anti-Spyware
Not everyone starts their computer and internet experience with the finances to buy all the different types of programs they need. Since it is dangerous to surf the web unprotected by not getting a good firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs many casual and non-business users rely on the free versions of popular and professional software makers.
With the price of a Microsoft Operating System being as expensive as it is, one wonders why Windows Defender is offered for "free" to licensed Windows customers. With the high incidence of security breaches in their popular Internet Explorer browsers it is at least a first line defense for new users who might otherwise not yet have learned about the need. Since it is Microsoft, you will find it does work well within the system. While you can only run one anti-virus program on your machine at a time, several anti-spyware programs can be used as a method of double-checking each other.
AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition is one of the most popular of the many freeware/shareware trojan trackers available for free download and use. While there are extra features included in the commercial version. The idea for most of the software producers is to still give a quality scan and clean for everyone to help cut down on the spread of malicious spyware. The free editions of AVG as well as PCTools and Ad-Aware have simpler controls than the commercial versions. The pro versions will offer the more computer savvy person many option to customize their program for greater protection.
It is never a good idea to allow a "free" scan of your system from any website no matter how reputable they seem to be. Even McAfee leaves a set of files on your system which may be more than they seem. An expose of their popular "Site Advisor" has been reported as having a backdoor access that offers full permissions to whatever software command comes through the access url. While they may mean no harm, all a hacker has to do is send their command through this unencrypted and unprotected executable.
Many of the "rogue" spyware programs will actually install a program that shows you have spyware that can only be removed by buying their program. If that sounds like extortion that is because it is.
