Spyware removal is one category where commercial products continue to outperform free alternatives. Spyware Doctor gets my vote for best spyware protection and removal, but it's not free so it's not on this list. You can get a feature-limited version of Spyware Doctor as part of the free Google Pack, along with a bunch of other great software, which is presumably how it managed to make this list of reader selected free spyware removers. This is one category of software that often requires using two apps to make sure your system stays clean.
Reader's Choice: Spybot Search & Destroy received a commanding 37% of reader votes for best anti-spyware solution. While many critics (myself included) feel that there are stronger alternatives in the commercial software realm, Spybot S&D has been among the top of the heap for years, commanding a great deal of mindshare with computer users everywhere.
2) Ad-Aware 2008 Free, which is another venerable member of the anti-spyware software category, comes in 2nd in reader selection with 25% of the vote.
Editor's Choice: Windows Defender is my favorite free choice for spyware protection and removal. It comes in at #3 with 14% of readers selecting it as their favorite. Microsoft does a solid job of keeping the list of known spyware updated, making this a reliable solution. It performs well in protecting from spyware at sites that attempt to sneak stuff on your system. Combined with other free protection, like a good antivirus program, you should feel reasonably safe using Windows Defender as your anti-spyware solution. Windows XP SP2 or newer is required to use Windows Defender.
4) Spyware Terminator received 5% of the reader vote and appears to benefit from regular updates.
5) Spyware Doctor Starter Edition is one of the downloads included in the Google Pack. While it received 3% of the reader vote, this version of Spyware Doctor is stripped of many of the real-time protection monitors included in the pay version, which places the SD Starter Edition at a solid number two on this list. It does include some active protection, full scan and remove capability, scheduled scanning, and free signature file updates. The signature file updates are not as frequent as the pay version and often include less data, making them less than perfect.
The remaining 16% of votes is spread between 54 other applications.
