Antispyware Programs

CUbhis recommends that PC users install Microsoft's Windows Defender as their primary antispyware software. It is currently a free program due to its Beta 2 (testing) status. It has been in use for over a year, and has proven to be one of the top antispyware programs available.

Columbia does offer Pest Patrol for free to current faculty, staff and students. However, CUbhis does not recommend installing it as your primary antispyware program due to some known issues:

• The program can require heavy use of your system's resources, and has caused noticeable slowness on some computers due to this.
• To use all of Pest Patrol's features, you must be logged into your computer with full Administrative access. This goes against best practices for computer security, which requires that you only log in with Administrative access when you need to install programs or change system configurations. For regular, daily use you should log on with limited access in order to prevent malicious programs from being able to install themselves.

Please be sure to see CUIT's Pest Patrol Troubleshooting Tips if you decide to use the program.

There are a number of other good antispyware programs that are free for personal use, including Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Spybot's Search and Destroy. Be sure to research any other antispyware software before deciding to install it; many spyware programs advertise themselves as antispyware in order to trick you into infecting your computer.

It is possible to use more than one antispyware program at a time, but be sure to read all instructions carefully to make sure that any you decide to install will not conflict with each other.