Rocky Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Giant Antispyware has been my choice for spyware removal for a while, it's a great tool that catches things that the other big two miss. Until this week it was a pay product with a free 1 month full trial. Microsoft bought the company recently and after a few weeks have released it under their own Microsoft banner, free to Windows users! I was very close to buying it a few weeks ago, thank goodness I never! Anyway, great tool now available free. http://www.giantcompany.com/default.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Thanks for the info! I will definately try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super-Bob Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 I really like the background monitor and running process tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurFACE Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Yes, It is a great tool. I think giant antispyware along with adaware and spybot work well together. I have seen all 3 miss some individually but together nothing goes undeteched. I have the license version of giant spyware but did see Microsoft purchased the business. The site is offering a beta version now. I hope I continue to get updates for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted January 8, 2005 Author Share Posted January 8, 2005 Yes, It is a great tool. I think giant antispyware along with adaware and spybot work well together. I have seen all 3 miss some individually but together nothing goes undeteched. I have the license version of giant spyware but did see Microsoft purchased the business. The site is offering a beta version now. I hope I continue to get updates for free. ← Yeh I'm not sure how it will pan out. It's not like MS to start charging for tools like this (is it?), but if they don;t make it a subscription model, all you folks who just paid for the original version are going to feel a bit cheated if it's suddenly free. Who knows.... one thing if they charge the same as what Giant were charging, I don't think I would pay. I might pay a tiny monthly amount for updates, but with 2 free alternatives I'm not to sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR6 Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Thanks for the tip Rocky. Definitely going to give this one a try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 I heard it was a little buggy on slashdot. They'd better not have people start paying for it, people will be up in arms if they do.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 The site is down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRT Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 I just tried it and it found a hijack that adaware and spybot didnt find. Its fast also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted January 9, 2005 Author Share Posted January 9, 2005 I heard it was a little buggy on slashdot. They'd better not have people start paying for it, people will be up in arms if they do.... ← http://slashdot.org/index.pl?issue=20050108 Jan 8th news item. The news article starts with this Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot. Although people keep referring to it as a beta, it should be remembered this is simply a rebadged Giant antispyware, which was a pay product, far from being a beta product. It then links to a full review at http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=84 which does a nice job of testing it against the pther market leaders. I have a shelf to put up so no time to read it fully, so skipping to conclusions now.... okay they say the MS Antispyware is the best, but ask is it worth paying for? http://www.flexbeta.net/main/index.php is actually quite neat site, I've never seen it before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMiguel Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 I noticed in the EULA that they intend it to be commercial, any news on if this'll be a free beta but a pay software upon final release? or will it remain a free service? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted January 9, 2005 Author Share Posted January 9, 2005 I noticed in the EULA that they intend it to be commercial, any news on if this'll be a free beta but a pay software upon final release? or will it remain a free service? ← I don't think there has been an official statement yet, they'll probably want as many installations of the beta as possible before openly stating the costs. I suspect it'll be a subsciption model for daily/regular updates, and perhaps a small charge up front for the main application. How much to the big virus vendors charge for updates? I guess it would be along similar lines but a little bit cheaper. Let's take a guess, I'd say $25 for the AntiSpyware and the regular updates for 12 months included. How much was it when Giant were selling it, I think it was $30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 25, 2005 Author Share Posted February 25, 2005 Wow, I dunno if you guys heard, but we (at least *I*) was pretty wide of the mark when guessing how much this will cost after the beta period expires - it turns out it is going to be totally free for personal use, for all XP SP2 users! Aside from a rather hilarious recent case where the tool actually prevented visitors from bookmarking a competitor site to MSN , this is great news. Of course not everyone will agree, but I for one am happy I can keep using it without any fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giampi Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Wow, I dunno if you guys heard, but we (at least *I*) was pretty wide of the mark when guessing how much this will cost after the beta period expires - it turns out it is going to be totally free for personal use, for all XP SP2 users! Aside from a rather hilarious recent case where the tool actually prevented visitors from bookmarking a competitor site to MSN , this is great news. Of course not everyone will agree, but I for one am happy I can keep using it without any fee. ← Agree 100% Rocky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRP 56 Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Free sounds good to me. Adaware user for a long time now but the MS antispyware looks to be worth having. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteKnight77 Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 My XP came with SP2 already built in. I guess I get it free too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR6 Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Wow, I dunno if you guys heard, but we (at least *I*) was pretty wide of the mark when guessing how much this will cost after the beta period expires - it turns out it is going to be totally free for personal use, for all XP SP2 users! ← It will be free, but you need to have a "genuine" copy of Windows XP installed. I finally tried it out and was impressed. However, after I ran it (with the most up-to-date definitions), I ran SpyBot and AdAware after (in that order) and both picked up things AntiSpyware didn't report (mostly tracking cookies but at least one spyware program). So now I run all three Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted February 26, 2005 Author Share Posted February 26, 2005 Wow, I dunno if you guys heard, but we (at least *I*) was pretty wide of the mark when guessing how much this will cost after the beta period expires - it turns out it is going to be totally free for personal use, for all XP SP2 users! ← It will be free, but you need to have a "genuine" copy of Windows XP installed. I finally tried it out and was impressed. However, after I ran it (with the most up-to-date definitions), I ran SpyBot and AdAware after (in that order) and both picked up things AntiSpyware didn't report (mostly tracking cookies but at least one spyware program). So now I run all three ← Yeh most review sites I've seen all recommended people run more than one anti-spyware. I'm hoping that once it comes out of beta stage though the MS one will be all I'll need, running more than one tool for one problem doesn't appeal to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chems Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 The MS one is a eater of system resources it got the pink slip on my machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRP 56 Posted March 11, 2005 Share Posted March 11, 2005 Got the MS installed on my HP PC and I must say I'm very pleased with the extras that MS has included in the Advanced Tools section. I ran my Ad-aware scan first then the MS and MS found one registry entry that Ad-aware didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Splash Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 A good article in this month's PCW, ended on this paragraph; OUR PICKS You can get an anti-spyware utility for free, but this is one area where going cheap isn't worth the savings. The no-cost Spybot Search & Destroy offers an overall detection rate of 54% and provides effective real-time scanning. Keeping on the free path, you could combine Spybot with Ad-Aware SE Personal, whose detection rate for active infections was slightly higher than Spybot's in most categories. However, even when combining Ad-Aware, Spybot, and the free HijackThis, we were unable to remove 100% of the infections on our test system. Sunbelt Software's Counter-Spy, our new Best Buy, proved the most capable of the products we tested, with the highest detection rates, cleanest interface, and fastest scan speeds. And its $20 price for a year of updates and tech support is a bargain. You also won't be disappointed by Webroot's Spy Sweeper, which was almost as effective Counter-Spy, scans quickly, and is easy to use. Combining either product with HijackThis, and reasonable caution when installing dubious goodies, you should be able to keep your system pretty well spyware free. I see Rocky's point about resenting to pay for any of these applications, but I've paid a small price for my NSW 2004 [after mail-in rebates] for the last three years, and that's been a good investment in 'peace of mind'. It's a sad world we live in when clever individuals waste their talents harming PC owners! DS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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