Whether you love or hate Microsoft, their Windows Defender is free software that can really help find and eliminate spy-ware. It not only detects and removes known spyware, it offers real-time protection against spyware. So it can stop spyware before it enters your computer.

Defender has been available for awhile, but it has been enhanced with an effective new scanning engine and a simplified user interface. It can easily be set up to run regularly scheduled scans.

The Defender software can, and should be set up to be updated regularly in the background, so that your computer will be protected against new threats as they appear.

Please realize that anti-spyware programs are different than anti-virus programs. You should only run one anti-virus program on your computer at any given time because using more than one anti-virus program at any given time can produce frightful conflicts.

When we talk about anti-spyware products, they do not all find all the spyware. You may have to use several scans and removal by several programs to actually remove all the spyware.

I use Spyware Doctor as my main defense against spyware, because it has given me the best results. The full version of Spyware Doctor is $29.99 and it can be used on as many as 3 computers. See my full review of Spyware Doctor for details.

I then use Windows Defender for occasional scan and to make sure that my computer is clean. If you can afford Spyware Doctor, I suggest that you try it. In conjunction with the free Windows Defender you really can keep spyware at bay.