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PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review Does Spyware Doctor Work?
posted by: Clint Davidson
One of the most popular spyware removal programs available is PC Tools' Spyware Doctor. This Spyware Doctor review will hopefully give you some more information on the program.
PC Tools is a respected name in the maintenance software world, with other programs involving registry repair and privacy software. Their software has won several awards from various online websites such as Download.com and PC World.
We put Spyware Doctor to the test to see if the program is worth your time.
Our Independent Test PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
For our test we ran Spyware Doctor on the same computer that we ran all the other programs on--an IBM T42 ThinkPad Laptop. The machine had been in use for approximately one year, which is the median age for most PCs today. Some are younger and some are older. Your individual risk of spyware infection depends on how you use your PC.
We downloaded the latest version of Spyware Doctor and installed it. Everything went smoothly, and the program checked for updates.
Interface PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
Spyware Doctor has an easy-to-navigate interface. It is bright and professional looking, with large buttons and good-looking icon illustrations and animations.
Running the program, however was, where we began to run into some memory issues. Spyware Doctor is a complete system hog, taking up 24 meg of memory while sitting idle, with active protection and immunization OFF. This is a sign of some bad programming. Utility programs such as these do not need to take up so many resources.
Scan PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
The scan itself is decent, however it's not very fast when compared with the superior Anti-Spyware by ParetoLogic. (review) It took 3 minutes, 56 seconds to scan 142,025 objects. Their definition database covers 220,637 known malware entities. That's almost 20,000 less than ParetoLogic's Anti-Spyware.
The Results PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
Spyware Doctor found 3 threats and 204 "infections" on our test PC. They were all advertising cookies. They flagged cookies for Statcounter.com, a website statistics program that leaves a cookie to store your password session. These overzealous results were a bit of a stretch.
We were a bit surprised at the fact that Spyware Doctor did not pick up on the Xupiter.Orbitexplorer spyware program that Anti-Spyware found in a previous test scan. Clearly Spyware Doctor is not detecting all the known spyware that's floating around on the internet.
Drawbacks PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
There were a lot of problems we had with Spyware Doctor. First of all, as we stated before, it is a bloated system hog. We found it almost impossible to run other applications while Spyware Doctor was running. It takes up to 31 meg of memory while running with OnGuard protection and Immunization on. The level of performance lag we had while testing the program just about reached the level of unacceptable.
Spyware Doctor also like to constantly flash pop ups and "register now" windows at you. We also found this to be incredibly annoying.
Spyware Doctor does not have the biggest definition list, and the scan is slower than the leading spyware removal program. Spyware Doctor also does not give you detailed information about all the threats it detects.
The uninstall process of Spyware Doctor is not thorough, and remnants get left behind in the system registry and directory. You'll need to either get a registry cleaner or find the registry entries yourself to remove them.
Conclusion PC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
Overall we were not impressed with Spyware Doctor. The fact that it sucked up so many system resources was our primary reason, as it is painful to try to operate. Those with slower systems will really have a problem with it.
Spyware Doctor did not identify all the threats that were on the test laptop, and this is our second #1 reason for not liking the program. If you are going to invest in an anti-spyware program you should definitely get one that identifies ALL the malware on your system.
Overall we do not recommend that you get Spyware Doctor. There are other, better programs out there for your money.
| Program Name: | Spyware Doctor |
| Publisher: | PC Tools |
| Download: |
Direct Download Link |
| Recommended? | Low |
We Recommend ParetoLogic's Anti-SpywarePC Tools Spyware Doctor Review
We recommend that you check out ParetoLogic's Anti-Spyware (our review | main site | download). It runs faster, is not a system hog, and identifies 20,000 more malware and spyware than Spyware Doctor. It's our #1 recommended spyware removal software.
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