Is XoftSpySe (anti-spyware) worth the cost?

[aob]

At $40 for a computer, is XoftSpySe worth the price?

I have Windows Defender which tells me that my computer is running smoothly and all is right with the world. A scan by XoftSpySe finds 900+ questionable items. (As soon as I get rid of Wild Tangent, I will get rid of most of them.)

Is it worth it to spend $40 for XoftSpy?

[dunedin]

Hello aob

XoftSpy seems to be considered one of the best programs.

Having said that, my personal opinion is that you don`t need to spend money to keep your machine clean. Everything you need is free.
Assuming you have a good antivirus and firewall running, if you use the following I think it is enough

1. Windows defender
or Spywareblaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

2.Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
Run it weekly and update it before running. Get it to fix all the RED entries it finds

3.Check weekly with online scans
Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

AVG Anti-Spyware http://www.ewido.net/en/

a-squared Web Malware Scanner http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/ax/

4. I also use Mike Lin`s StartupMonitor which is an excellent little program
http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Nothing gets past it.

Elaine

[aob]

dunedin:

I do like saving money.

I have Windows Defender. Will download Spybot. Will look into the others you recommended. Thanks for the suggestions.

[fink]

Having said that, my personal opinion is that you don`t need to spend money to keep your machine clean. Everything you need is free.

Same here. Despite the fact I have paid for one a/v, Kaspersky, on one of my PCs I use freeware exclusivley otherwise (total of 4 computers) and feel I'm as well protected as I can be. This also inludes safe computing habits, a safer browser than IEX, keeping up to date on MS security patches and not letting anyone use my computers.

How many of those 900 items are cookies or separate parts of the same infection? Xoft is well regarded but sometimes a scanner (any scanner) doing a count like that can be misleading especially if individual cookies are part of the total.

[aob]

Fink:
Several hundred, at least, are of Wild Tangent, which came with the computer, which is fairly new. Just have not gotten around to removing it, which I will do today.

[dunedin]

I agree with fink about the cookies. I`m not saying anything against XoftSpy here, but they are hoping you will buy the program. All companies work like this.

I trust the programs and scans I listed to keep my machine clean. Every few weeks I also run HijackThis as a double check. I have never found any malware just sometimes a couple of these "unnecessary" files which don`t really do any harm.

Elaine