Doctor Spyware Cleaner 1.1

Doctor Spyware Cleaner is a freeware product designed to keep your computer spyware free by scanning and deleting malicious items and monitoring your system for threatening objects.

The user interface is very intuitive, which makes the program easy to configure and use. Scan automation is provided by the in-built scheduler. Since you can set the program to start with Windows and to monitor the system in real-time, you can consider yourself shielded. Although updates are free, you need to manually update the program.

As for removing spyware and protecting your computer, you can perform quick, custom or full computer scans which would include in depth registry scans as well. After scanning my system, the program found a couple of spyware, some tracking cookies and a couple of suspicious items (unwise.exe). Actually, 'unwise.exe' is an uninstallation package which comes bundled with products with the Wise installer. I was aware of the 'unwise.exe' items, they were legitimate components of installed applications, so I had to add them to an 'Ignore list'. So, I noticed that in the 'Preferences' section, the program was set to report all suspicious items. In this case, you will need to be careful what you delete, since it might be a legitimate program component.

Besides spyware removal features, the program will block pop-ups in Internet Explorer and kill malicious ActiveX controls.

Pluses:

Drawbacks / flaws: Erratic faulty operation of the 'Activity Monitor' (can't be enabled).

In conclusion: Considering the 77,614 spyware signature database and it's advanced scanning options, this application proved to be a worthy spyware remover.

version reviewed: 1.5