A lot of the finer things in life are free and the same can be said about the award winning anti-malware utility called Spybot-Search and Destroy. The software was written by software engineer Patrick Michael Kolla way back in 2000 and on its way to 2010, has been a recipient of multiple awards, including a Shareware.ue 5 Star Award, 5-Star Award for Best Freeware Download, DownloadBestSoft Best Privacy Software for 2009, and notably for all Windows 7 users, a Windows7Download.com 5-Star Award winner.

 

So what is Spybot Search & Destroy good for? The software excels in removing spyware and adwares from Microsoft Windows computers.

 

Spyware is a form of malware that may do the following: track a user's web browsing habits and may install additional software such as keyloggers. A formal definition of spyware is a “type of program that monitors and gathers user information for different purposes.”

 

Adware is another type of software that automatically shows or downloads ads after the software is installed, or while the software is being used.

 

Spybot is not an antivirus program and is not intended to be a replacement of one.

 

Using a comprehensive database of adware and spyware, the software scans your files and presents the results in a way that makes it easy for a user to remove or ignore them. As of November 2009, more than 1.7 million malware signatures representing more than 5,000 products are listed in the database. Also included in the database is a list of undesirable servers which are sources of much of the spyware in the internet.

 

Proactive protection from malware can be had by immunizing the file system. The immunize feature prevents the installation of adware by preventing files coming from undesirable hosts to be installed on the computer. The Resident SD helper is a stronger form of protection by blocking the installation of software that manages to bypass the immunize function. For the ultimate in proactive protection, Spybot Search and Destroy innovated the TeaTimer module which prevents files from being installed on the computer. It also monitors processes that have been known to act maliciously and when Spybot detects suspicious activity, the process is killed right way and the user is asked whether to be prompted when the process acts up again, or to kill it automatically or just allow it to run. Aside from disallowing the running of potentially harmful processes, the TeaTimer module stops the changing of critical parts of the registry and asks for your permission whether to allow or deny changes.

 

All files that are marked for deletion passes through another SpyBot Search and Destroy feature called the file shredder. Mere deletion does not really remove a file from the disk it only marks the file so that it can be overwritten. The file shredder removes all file traces by overwriting the space occupied by the malware on the disk with nonsense information that makes it impossible for the file to do its intended work.

 

Spybot Search and Destroy is available as 15 megabyte download. Acquiring the software is very easy and no registration not even an email address is required. The interface is available in more than two dozen languages. The appearance of the SpyBot Search and Destroy window is customizable with the use of skins. Updates to the database are released weekly along with improvements of heuristics-based detection of spyware. Personal use of the software is free but corporate users are asked to pay when they decide to use SpyBot Search and Destroy for the long term.

 

Windows 7 users can find in SpyBot Search and Destroy an effective shield against the harmful flotsam of the internet and for assurances of the software's effectiveness, they need not look no further than the awards won by the application.