Spybot, www.safer-networking.org Review

Overall Rating

Good search results.
Removes most rubbish.
SD-Resident runs & protects in background.
Free.

Cannot always remove all threats.
Does not detect all threats.

Without realising, I recently accidently let a Trojan into my PC, which attacked various files. I'm not sure of the name, but it disabled any security updates for McAfee Internet Security, Windows Update (Vista) and Defender, System and Program updates etc. It also disabled various Helpdesk websites such as Dell's Virtual Technician, McAfee Technical Support and Customer Care and various other sites. Initially I thought the McAfee website and update web pages were too busy or unavailable for whatever reason. But after two weeks I became concerned and tried to contact McAfee; which is virtually impossible, especially regarding the fact that my Virtual Technician was disabled by the Trojan. Windows Defender also came with various error messages. I could also not update Defender manually as it came with a 'web page unavailable' message! I decided to re-install McAfee Security Center but to no avail. I then started searching various forum sites and typed in the error messages etc. I realised some sort of Malware could cause the problems above. Having used Spybot Search & Destroy before I decided to download this freeware to see if anything could be found: it found 3 Trojans and a couple of tracking cookies! I tried to delete these but Spybot could not delete all Trojans! There was one file called Win32.Agent.sd in c:\resycled\boot.com. Again I was stuck, until I looked at a Spybot Forum and typed in the file location to see if anyone else had the same problem: Bingo. Shaba (username), a security expert from Finland resides on a forum site of Spybot Search & Destroy, suggested to download Malwarebytes' Anti Malware. You can find a detailed guide on this page: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=36353&h ighlight=resycled%5Cboot.com
I followed his link, downloaded the freeware and to my amazement, the program found another 4 infected Registry Keys, 6 Registry Data Items, 3 infected folders and 4 infected files all with Trojan.DNSChanger and Trojan.Agent
I was able to get rid of all problems, by re-booting the PC when prompted. Brilliant. Although it changed some of the desktop layout, by moving quicklaunch icons around and deleting recent items, I am very happy that this problem is now resolved. I immediately updated Security Center, Windows Defender and other programs to make sure I had the latest security updates, as I wasn't able to do them for over three weeks!
To me, this makes Malwarebytes' Anti Malware a must-have for every PC, as even Spybot did not detect all malware and McAfee Security Center was unable to detect a major attack by Trojans and other malware. I am very disappointed with McAfee and if it wasn't for its free subscription with the Dell Vostro I bought, I would probably have gone for Kaspersky, which is installed on my laptop. That occasionally alerts attacks and seems more secure than McAfee. I have now managed to set up Virtual Technician for McAfee, which works well. I was also surprised Spybot (Safer Networking Ltd.) could not remove all Trojans and malware.
So, Malwarebytes' Anti Malware is the one for me. Try it, use it, keep it and be happy. And it's free!!
Malwarebytes' Anti Malware lets you do a quick scan, which will take about 5 minutes or a thorough scan, which took just over 2 hours to do 300,000 items/files. You can visit them at www.malwarebytes.org