Which is the Best? Ad-Aware Pro vs Spyware Doctor
Performance – Winner: Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus
AAWPIS is slow in loading notification icon during Windows startup while SDAV will load the program’s icon and processes as fast as it could. AAWPIS will use 1.7MB of memory and 1.1MB only is used by SDAV. The system did not experience any slow performance and both have reported itself to Windows Security Center without a hitch. That is true only with Ad-Aware’s Ad-Watch Live when the installation of the Ad-Watch Live driver succeeds. If not, you will end up no real-time protection against malware and you will find Windows Security Center to report about the AntiVirus protection by Lavasoft is turned off.
The scanner’s memory usage and performance are as follows:
- AAWPIS – 15MB of memory usage and has scanned 180,067 objects in 54 minutes
- SDAV – 11MB of memory usage and has scanned 326,274 objects in 1 hour and 2 minutes
False Positives: Ad-Aware falsely identify Network Magic’s
file while SDAV has detected malware with {5e2121ee-0300-11d4-8d3b-444553540000} registry entries which is registered by
Technologies. Also, both programs falsely detected risk entries in a customized HOSTS file that will block known ads-serving and malicious websites during a system drive scan.
Web Browser Protection – Winner: Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security
SDAV is offering Browser Defender but no matter how many times I install this program, the toolbar or browser defender is not showing up nor doing anything. AAWPIS’s Download Guard is working fine. Both supports Internet Explorer browser only.
To test the protection when a customer is using Internet Explorer to download files, I visited malware links and found no risks are blocked by SDAV while AAWPIS has alerted and blocked some malicious downloads. Not perfect score by AAWPIS but it’s better than no SDAV’s browser defender’s that found no risk when downloading positive malware.
Malware Protection and Detection – Winner: Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus
To test their scanner and protection engine, I transferred in real-time 70 malware samples. Unfortunately, AAWPIS’ real-time protection did not catch any while IntelliGuard, the real-time protection component by SDAV has blocked and detected 49 out of 70 risks.
The on-demand scanner by AAW has detected more though: It detected 59 and 3 registry entries out of 70 while SDAV have detected 53 out of 70 only. Note that AAWPIS failed to remove 1 of the 59 detected risks.
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Price to Value – Winner: Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus
Both programs costs, $39.95. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 1 year subscription is good for 3 PCs while Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security is only for single machine. Trial version for Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor is available for 30 days. Limitations of Spyware Doctor Trial edition are no removal of detected and blocked threats and limited protection by its IntelliGuard component.
Conclusion
Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus is obviously better than Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security if we will base on performance and prevention of malware.
This post is part of the series: Which AntiVirus is Better? Spyware Doctor vs Ad-Aware
Do you want to know if Lavasoft and PC Tools anti-virus programs can protect you against malware? Do you want to know which of these programs is better? Read this comparison to find out which is better.
