In a recent PCadvisor article a rather interesting question popped up about whether antispyware is a mere waste of time and money.If, at first, the customary antivirus programs could not keep pace with infatigable annoying adware pop-ups and devious spyware, nowadays, virtually any antivirus program will attempt to block data-stealing spyware, and most of them succeed — or at least inform you about — adware and other questionable program.
As all-in-on concept is gaining more and more ground, some companies (like PC Tools and Webroot ) have already begun to add antivirus assistance to their wares.
However, sales figures could not be more encouraging. According to Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis with the NPD Group, antispyware tools are very much in demand.
On the other hand, sales figures do not necessarily stand for quality. Mainly, antispyware as component of today’s antivirus programs offer the same efficiency as those in antispyware software but Andreas Marx (AV-Test Center, Germany) states that, yet, antivirus does a greater job at intercepting and blocking malicious software before your computer can get infected.
The same expert gives, nevertheless, an upper hand to the antispyware products which can deal better with removing spyware from an infected system. Here, antivirus software bares the flaw of leaving files and Registry items behind though it takes care of malware and removes the executable.
The bottom line is that designing a single product to deal with all threats is pretty hard. As Michael P Greene, vice president of product strategy at PC Tools, puts it, creating antispyware to befriend antivirus is “almost a known requirement".
So, where does this lead us to? The same Michael P Greene considers that antivirus programs’ antispyware can provide just the needed protection for most of the folks out there, which basically means, you can put a big grin upon your face and spare some money.
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