# XoftSpy



## Regicide (Aug 8, 2003)

I am an avid Ad-Aware user. But, I was told by one of my professors that Ad-Aware comes with spyware in it. So, I looked into it, and sure enough Ad-Aware does come with spyware. I wish I wrote down the website he gave, it was an article going into alot of depth about it. Anyway, I had been told by many that the best anti-spyware software was XoftSpy. I checked it out, then I bought it. It is amazing. It caught so much more than free anti-spyware programs. For example, Ad-Aware found 15 items, while XoftSpy found 50+ items. Now, XoftSpy is a pretty penny ($40), but it is well worth it. The website is http://www.paretologic.com/. You can download a free version, but it will only DETECT not remove any spyware. I personally love it.


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## Chicon (Jul 29, 2004)

Regicide said:


> ... It caught so much more than free anti-spyware programs...


Hi Regicide,

I install the free trial version : I ran a scan and it showed a few entries and I don't remove them.
Before the test, I ran both Ad-aware SE ans Spybot S&D and they found nothing.
I checked the registry keys caught by XoftSpy with the registry editor : *they don't exist in my registry* I have checked with another registry editor to make sure. The entries showed by XoftSpy are false : among the entries, they were a few CLSID's that don't exist in my registry and I am sure of this.


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## dugq (Jul 16, 2004)

Have a look here for more info

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=24563

or here

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,9877664~mode=flat

This software is a scam, it picks up false positives to convince people it is removing spyware when it isn't.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

XoftSpy is no good and is even sold under other names.

Also there is a NoAdware that is bad and sold but that is not lavasofts, Ad-aware.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

I use XoftSpy along with Ad-Aware and Spybot. Xoft always finds quite a few more things than the others, but many are false positives! If I had let it remove the things it identified as malware, I would have lost my proxy and the program I installed from Microsoft to change my toolbar wallpaper in IE. Both were completely misidentified by Xoft as something that they weren't.

But, it has caught a few things the others missed, and it sometimes does show registry entries that don't exist, or at least have been removed.

It works OK, but it needs to be watched carefully so it doesn't delete good and harmless files. But none of these cleaners should be trusted completely and what they find needs to be examined before deleting things.

I'd like to see that article about "spyware" in Ad-Aware. Frankly, I don't believe it. At least not by my definition of the word.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Still that not good and read the info on the page in the link I posted above. 
Plus look at the Trustworthy Anti-Spyware Products.
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#trustworthy

Not very many out of all the software on that page that is Trustworthy.
Two are free and the other three cost. GIANT AntiSpyware has good ratings.

Also see the Anti-Spyware Test (Guide)

http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-test-guide.htm


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## dugq (Jul 16, 2004)

Just ran a little test with XoftSpy, it found four items, a dataminer, two worms, and a trojan. ALL of what it found were absolutely harmless, and all would be recreated by the programs they relate to once they were deleted. Also, the worms and trojans were registry items, not files.

A very dodgy program


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