anti spyware coming?

[RichmondRed]

Hey Gang,
I'm hoping this is the right place to put this so here goes.  I absolutely  LOVE my Avast so much so  by word of mouth alone, my entire family from VA to CA has it installed on all their systems! This is our primary, and might I add,  best weapon in the anti virus war. 

My question is this:

Does anyone know or have you heard if Avast will be forthcoming with a singular program geared primarily toward the destruction, interception, etc. of spyware, malware and all the other  little nasty things not categorized as viruses?  I know there's PC Tools' Spyware Doctor  and  Lavasoft's Ad-Aware but frankly, I'd prefer to stick with what I KNOW works and that, of course, would be anything by Avast!

I'd really appreciate a "heads up" if anyone knows of anything or as I said above, has heard anything even from the rumor mill that would just absolutely make my day! 

Thank you so very much for your help.

Have a good one!

RED

PS  The novel is still a "go" as this posting!!

[steckler]

Glad you like our product. Avast includes complete anti-spyware functionality.  Years ago there was a difference between AV and AS but nowadays virtually every AV product also provides anti-spyware functionality.  There are some exceptions--such as the some of the AV products from the traditional AS companies.  But those exceptions are probably to drive sales of their AS products.  So no need to have a separate AS product if you are using Avast.

[RichmondRed]

Thank you so much for answering my post so quickly.  

I should have made my question a bit more specific.  I have the Avast Home Edition and try as I may, I have not seen anywhere within its structure where I could "run a spyware scan" which is really what I'm looking for with regards to my original posted question.  If I understood your post, the Avast programs protect our systems in all aspects not just in the virus arena. To be quite honest, I thought the Avast Anti Virus was literally that, a program that protected our systems from virus invasion only.

I've run several "freebie" scans out there because of my playing on a specific game site when taking a break from writing.  Right now, its showing "a boatload" of low threat spyware :'(

I'm sorry, but here comes a few questions, which I hope are more specific, regarding my spyware issue:

1.  What if anything do I need to activate or can I activate a spyware scan/removal using my Avast Home Edition in order to keep  "the nasty critters" off my system?

2.  Is my spyware defense that you speak of within our Avast programs a "stand alone" program or do I need to have another program running simultaneously for added protection?

One of my biggest concerns is the % of free space on my system.  In one (1) night, it is literally down from a total of 12.66GB of which 5.35GB is free = 42% free space.  Last night it was reading 54% free space.  As information, I did run my Avast Anti Virus scan and my system came up clean as a whistle--no trouble there thank goodness! Avast is on point!

I do know the size of my system bites but since my book is on here, I'm way too superstitious at this point to change systems midstream.  Hopefully, that will come after the first publishing...Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise!

I can't begin to tell you how much you guys in support have taught me regarding computers; it is literally unbelievable! My hope is that my additional questions and explanation are worded in such a manner so  you won't have to repeat yourself.  If you do, please remember, I'm a newbie when it comes to computer systems and their inner workings but I'm sure trying to absorb and learn.   

Again  thank you  so very much for your patience in helping me resolve my issue regarding spyware.

Have a good one!

RED

[Shiw Liang]

1.When you scan your computer avast scans for both virus and spyware if you want to know^^!
2.Avast also protects you from both viruses and spyware.
If you want a better protection you can add a threatfire and also a malwarebytes they will help you a lot!
Hope this will not be too heavy in your computer because my laptop is windows service pack 3 and both of them run quite well in my computer!

Take a look at this but I'm not too sure if it is true but many people also use threatfire
http://www.threatfire.com/about/

[Hermite15]

@ RichmondRed: as said avast includes antispyware and antirootkit, it's all in the same engine and virus definitions. Now if you want more tweaking (although anti-spyware is never a separated process there either, while anti-rootkit is), give a shot to the latest beta of avast 5; it's pretty stable now and offers features and performance that V4 doesn't have:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=51025.0

[Tarq57]

There is a certification (there is more than one certifying agency - I'm not familiar with the process) fr antu spyware applications. This one is from West coast labs. It indicates that Avast antivirus also passes the antispyware criteria.

Additional demand scanner/s are a good idea, as a backup/second opinion. MalwareBytesAntiMalware, and Superantispyware (respectively MBAM and SAS) are the most frequently recommended, right now.

AdAware and Spyware Doctor are not so much recommended, for a couple of reasons. In the case of the former, it's not considered that effective. In the case of the latter, it will scan but not remove what it finds until it is paid for.

[Avastfan1]

Hi RichmondRed,

Welcome to the Avast Forums. I too recommend Avast as the best anti-virus programme in my experience.

One of the best anti-spyware programmes currently on the market is MBAM. It works nicely in cojunction with Avast and is a specialised anti-spyware program.

A layered defence is always the best policy against malicious programmes. I use Avast Pro, MBAM (resident protection module) http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam-download.phpand PC Tools Firewall Plus. I run a full boot-time scan with Avast at least once a month. In addition I run a quick scan with MBAM at least once a week.

Other than that, if you can get yourself behind a hardware firewall in your router, use Firefox with NoScript installed and stay away from the porn! :-)

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Avastfan1

[azism]

How do I know if the SpyWare part of Avast! is working? I see nothing that indicates in my Avast 4.8 Pro that there is spyware in it or that it works.   

[DavidR]

It is incorporated into the main program so there isn't a spyware scan as such but a normal scan. Spyware/malware is beginning to blur the edges with amny anti-viruses detecting malware/spyware and vice versa.

See http://www.avast.com/eng/press-release-avast-tops-av-comparatives-test.html.

That doesn't mean you can improve overall detections by using a compatible specialist anti-spyware as I have (see my signature).

Whilst avast does detect malware samples, what it doesn't do is a specific registry scan, if it detects a spyware file it will check for associated registry entries and try to deal with those. The important thing is obviously to deal the file detected.