Spyware, viruses, & security forum: What happened to Spyware Doctor Updates?

Has the free version of Spyware Doctor been taken away?

I had Spyware Doctor and found it only scans and finds spyware, but does not remove it unless you purchase.

Try Spybot Search and Destroy
It's free to use and scans and removes spyware.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

I also use Spyware Blaster, also free.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Hope this helps
Graham

Ok so im not the only one who noticed! Yes there was a free version that scanned AND removed spyware which as of mid december05/jan06 has stopped updating it's database for the free version as t9275 rightly pointed out.

I have AVG antivirus, spybot, adaware and microsoft antispyware. I can tell you that AVG and spybot have found 1 virus each, ms antispyware none, adaware has found about 4-8 each scan but Spyware Doctor has managed to find the most (about 20 each scan) including TROJAN HORSES which all the others missed. So by far it is (or was) the best free spyware buster i had. I am now contemplating buying the full version. If it wasn't so effective, i wouldn't even bother. However i will try some other trial versions out there and see if they can measure up to SWDoctor first.

Hi Roddy32,
Firstly many thanks for the link to ewido anti-malware. I have already used it and after one pass it has discovered 24 infections and cleaned them all out. The only thing i would have preferred is if it could scan the whole pc in one go and then you can choose to remove all infections at the END of the scan. As it is now, everytime it detects ONE infection, it stops the scan completely and awaits instructions to remove/quarantine, etc. If you are away from the PC and come back, it will be there waiting for you to click 'OK' before continuing.

Also, i may have been misunderstood earlier. I said ''Spyware Doctor has managed to find the most (about 20 each scan) including TROJAN HORSES which all the others missed''. I didn't say they were ALL Trojan Horses, but Spyware Doctor manages to nab about 1 or 2 each time. None of the others even spotted Trojan Horses, not even Ewido. I don't scour the less savoury sites for the simple fact that i use my PC for important financial transactions and am paranoid about getting the TH's, thus my preference for SW Doctor.

However, i love the fact that Ewido has managed to detect so many infections and is still free after the trial period! You are right, not one program can detect them all. THanks again for the link, Ewido is now an important part of my antispyware arsenal.

I am getting desperate because I have been trying to uninstall Spyware Doctor for about 5 days, without success. I have e-mailed them twice outlining error messages, but only had an acknowledgement to my first, so far. Also, I close all active pages and files before trying to uninstall, so there shouldn't be any files still in use.

The error messages are as follows,

"File"C:\Programme File\Spyware Doctor\uninsooo dat" could not be opened, cannot install Error 32. The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

" Error 5 (Spyware Doctor) Access Denied. Unable to execute file in the temporary directory.

"Spyware Doctor has encourntered a problem and generated an exception report. Please send to PC Tools for further inspection."

I'd be grateful for any tips on how to finally uninstall this programme permanently.
Thanks.

Natalia.

Thanks for your useful suggestion, but unfortunately the link throws up 'This page cannot be Displayed' message.

I got on to Spyware Doctor and after about 5 e-mails from me and a couple from them, finally they seemed to grasp by problem.

One of their advisors suggested I try uninstalling in Safe Mode, which worked. I am not sure about all the probable leftover files in my registry, though!

I just updated my "free" version of Spyware Doctor. It will also still remove spyware. I don't know how long this free version works but it seems to me I downloaded it about a year ago. I got this version somewhere on the net but not at the PC Tools site. I can't remember now where I got it. The last update was 982 Kb. It is still one of the better spyware removers along with Spysweeper.