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Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover.

If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too :)

If SpyBot-S&D finds such modules, it can remove them - or replace them with empty dummies in case their host software won't run with its bot removed. In most cases, the host still runs fine after removing the bot.
For a list of 'supported' bots see the feature lists below. The Spybot-S&D interface is so easy, that updates just require replacing a file of about 80k in size. Those updates are distributed by my software mailinglist, at the authors page and are also available from inside the programs update section.

Another feature of Spybot S&D is the removal of usage tracks, which makes it more complicated for unknown spybots to transmit useful data. The list of last visited websites, opened files, started programs, cookies, all that and more can be cleaned. Supported are the three major browsers Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator and Opera.

What's New in Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.3.51 Beta :

· Fix for hang on Stop button pressed while doing automated scan.
· Creates additional log file to track Run entry creation.
· Fixes various localization issues on the three new dialogs and non-latin characters.

What's New in Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.0.31 Final :

• Improved Scan Speed
· Spybot-S&D 1.6 integrates parts of the future 2.0 file scanning engine to speed up the on-demand scan.
• Up-to-date browser support
· Both immunization and the on-demand scan are able to access a dozen different browsers, which now includes the latest revisions of the most popular ones, Firefox and Opera.
• Easier On-Access Use
· Until now, our on-access part was able to block bad entries, but at the same time, confused many novice users by asking for confirmation on changes of other monitored system entries as well. While this is a great feature for all experienced users who want full control over their systems, we decided that we need to make this easier for the average user, and integrated automated decisions based on the system entry database built through our RunAlyzer, containing more than quarter of a million decisions.
• OpenSBI
· Safer Networking also announces OpenSBI, our attempt at opening up the fight against malware to anyone who wants to participate. OpenSBI means we've published documenation and tools that anyone can use to create their own malware detection patterns for use with Spybot-S&D, and share those with other Spybot-S&D users.