PROS
Rootkit protection
Easy installation
Good support
Below average
spyware protection
Poor manual scanning
Poor detection rate
Spyware Doctor scored very well last year, but this year some of its competitors have simply beat it.
The user interface is average. Installation was easy, and there are a few extra features to round out this antispyware software.
However, when it comes to core antispyware protection, Spyware Doctor didn't hold up well during our tests.
Real-time protection was below average, and so were the manual scanning results.
Bottom line, there are several other antispyware options that far surpass Spyware Doctor this year.
Spyware Doctor Antispyware Features
- Real-time Antispyware Protection
- ThreatFire Behavioral Intelligence
- Rootkit Detection
- Browsing Protection
- Site Guard
- Cookie Guard
- IntelliGuard Protection
- Intelli-Scan
Installation - 90%
Installation was very simple and the steps were self explanatory. However, Spyware Doctor didn't let us open the main screen until the first updates were completed.
This is different from the other antispyware software we've tested.
Not as clean an install as possible, but not too bad.
User Interface - 60%
Though the user interface of this software seems to be very well organized, navigation is a little confusing.
We had to spend a minute trying to find out the different options. Somehow the navigation of Spyware Doctor antispyware seems to be not in sync with the other software we've tested.
The real-time guard (IntelliGuard) can be turned on/off from the main screen itself.
The system status given on the main screen gives an overall picture of the installed software. One can find out if the version is current or not from the status section. Users can run manual scans with just a click from the main screen.
Pre-Infected Machine - 50%
$29.95
We pre-infected our testing PC with known spyware, adware, and trojans to see how well it would preform right out of the box.
A scan was automatically launched, but none of the trojans we threw at it were detected. However, all of our spyware and adware samples were.
While antispyware isn't really designed to capture trojans, our top antispyware software choices this year handled trojans with ease. So, they've raised the bar for everyone. Unfortunately, Spyware Doctor wasn't up to the task.
Real-time Protection - 50%
Spyware Doctor's real-time antispyware protection was below average.
The first set of spyware we copied on to our testing computer wasn't detected, but the second set finally was.
This is concerning because our first set of known trojans got right through, while our spyware and adware were successfully blocked.
Pop-ups weren't all successfully blocked either.
Manual Scanning - 30%
Manual scanning performed exactly the same as real-time.
We loaded our PC with spyware, adware, and trojans, then launched a full-system scan.
Spyware Doctor didn't capture any of the trojans, but all of the spyware and adware that we threw at it was successfully captured.
Protection statistics provided under Help menu were misleading after our manual scan. It gives the following counts:
- Infections Detected: 25
- Infections quarantined: 4
- Infections removed: 17
No clue of what has happened to the remaining 4 infections. How are we supposed to know if these remaining four infections were correctly sanitized?
Resource Usage - 94%
| Real-time protection: |
Manual Scanning: |
| Memory usage: 12 MB |
Memory usage: Max 62 MB |
| CPU usage: 0% to 2% |
CPU usage: 4% to 55% |
| Page file usage: 261 MB |
Page file usage: 337 MB |
Definition Updates - 80%
The spyware definition update was run during the installation process itself, but can be configured from the main console screen.
You can schedule the updates to be more or less frequent (we always recommend the most frequent update schedule so your PC has maximum protection).
Customer Support - 90%
The customer support page is very clean and neatly arranged. It includes, FAQs, knowledgebase, forums, chat, email, phone.
There is also no context sensitive help.
Un-Installation - 95%
Spyware Doctor antispyware uninstallation is pretty simple and can be completed with just a click.
You can easily uninstall via the Windows ADD/REMOVE Programs feature.
A reboot is needed to complete the uninstall.
Special Features - 87%
- Malware Detective: This feature enables Spyware Doctor to scan through the computer and send any vulnerable files to back to its home server. However, when we tested this feature, it prompted us to enter our "ticket number", which we were not aware we needed. There's no help section on this screen to tell the user what a ticket number is. Not very user-friendly.
- Secure Community: A community of Spyware Doctor users who have chosen to report potential malware to PC Tools (the makers of Spyware Doctor). PC Tools can then update their signatures after analyzing such files.
System Requirements
- Vista
- Super VGA 800 x 600 video adapter
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher
- Internet access is required to register and receive product updates
- Spyware Doctor Retail requires a 8X CD-ROM drive or faster
- Windows 7
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB of system memory 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Windows Vista
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB of system memory
- 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Windows XP Home and Professional Editions with SP1
- Pentium 300 MHz processor
- 128 MB of system memory
- 1.5 GB of available space on the hard drive
- Windows 2000 (Version 6.1.0.448 only) with SP4 and update roll-up
- Pentium 133 MHz processor
- 64 MB of system memory
- 2 GB Hard Drive with atleast 650 MB of available space
Conclusion
$29.95
By the end of our testing phase, Spyware Doctor software couldn't detect the trojans we used for testing, which were successfully detected by other antispyware software we tested (SUPREantispyware, STOPzilla, CounterSpy). Moreover, Spyware Doctor tended to disable the taskbar and regedit without asking for permission. Very annoying.
Also, in the Custom Scan mode, the software forces the user to choose one or more scanner types there by leaving no choice to the user, with no knowledge of scanners, but to do a full or quick (Intelli) scan.
While Spyware Doctor scored very high last year, we're very disappointed to find that their overall protection wasn't as powerful this time around.
