Protection against spyware is of utmost importance if you wish to prevent others from exploiting your personal information and browsing habits. SpyBot – Search & Destroy is a full featured security solution designed to keep you away from this kind of malware, while also providing a suite of tools for system repair, file shredding and managing autostart items.

The interface has a clean and professional look, with all the modules in plain view. It provides you with direct access to the scanning modes, namely: a full system scan that thoroughly analyzes your computer for threats and a custom file/folder scan that allows you to manually select the locations to be processed. The scanning speed is decent and a full-system scan took about twenty minutes in our case, which is acceptable, but the amount of resources it requires is impressive (the CPU usage exceeds 50% at times).

A system immunization feature is also available, aimed to apply preventive measures against spyware via methods belonging to your browsers in order to block malware from infecting your computer.

The main interface also features an option to switch to Advanced User Mode, which triggers a set of complementary tools that you can use to create system logs, manage autostart items, shred files, repair system inconsistencies or scan for rootkits.

The application is not only able to remove spyware, but it also detects and deletes keyloggers, providing at the same time a fast update tool to download the latest virus definitions. To make sure you're on the safe side all the time, SpyBot – Search & Destroy automatically creates a backup of every single removed file.

Other customizations can be performed from the Settings window. This section allows you to configure Windows explorer and browser integration, ignore lists and scheduled scans.

SpyBot – Search & Destroy makes the time you spend with it worthwhile. The spyware detection and disinfection capabilities make it a reliable real-time protection solution against malware, turning it into a virtual bodyguard for your computer.