PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2010 [Old Version]

I was excited to get this program installed but that excitement quickly went away. The installation went fine however, it said that the "antivirus subscription is inactive". I contacted pctools via online chat. After about the first 10 minutes of obviously making sure I have a legitament copy, I was told to activate it online. I did that with no change. They sent me an email with a download link and new activation code. The download was only for Spyware Doctor, NO ANTIVIRUS NOW. This download was not the program that I purchased. Now I called them on the phone. I was forced to take a picture of the box, the cd and provide a copy of the Amazon invoice. I have sent all of this and still no resolution.All I want is a working piece of software. What will they do next, send the police to my door to check the retail box?

I'm sure this software is effective -- in fact in initial scans it caught lots of adware that Webroot Spysweeper never did -- but it's such a resource hog that my entire PC now works very slowly. Apps open more slowly, and IE7 also barely moves. I disabled a couple of the guards and that helped, but of course then it leaves me more vulnerable. In addition, an e-mail to Support 2 weeks ago still has not been answered. This was highly rated by some PC magazines, but overall I'm very disappointed.

Historically (>2007), this product has worked really well for me on my Windows XP Pro (WinXP Pro)(32 bit), Service Pack 3 (SP3), 2GB RAM, 80 GB HDD Dell 1501 Inspiron box with two Firewalls and two other anti-malware programs. However, on my Win 7 Home Premium (X64), 8GB RAM, 1 TB HDD Dell 17 Studio box using Windows Defender (free from Microsoft), Spyware Doctor prevents most of my programs from launching (including Microsoft Office 2007 applications) and Spyware Doctor will not do an update. Fortunately internet explorer (IE8) can launch and I have at least one other box that I can use! When I completely deactivate the product, all my programs work! Technical support (finally had to use it) from the vendor - PC Tools - is non-existent so far for me. However there is an automated response system when you log in an issue. Search the PC Tools forum and internet for "LP5" or "Spyware Doctor Contact the author" will identify the same issues that I had with this product on my Win7 box. The product worked well on my XP box, garnered rave reviews from PC Mag and so suggest reviewing other users' experiences with this product. Overall on my Win7 box, I would give this product 0 rating and on my XP box I would give it 5 stars. Word of caution, in my experience, on another XP box, Antimalwarebytes (spelling may be off, free application) rendered Spyware Doctor useless - treated it as malware, literally.

I am pretty much the average consumer, so take this review for what you will. This product was recommended by PC Mag so I decided to try it. My computer had just spent 2 weeks at Geek Squad for a debilitating virus that McAfee and Ad Patrol let through. $250 later, I was determinded to find something that really worked. Having a fresh, clean start after GS cleaned my whole system, I can say that I feel this product works. It is always asking me if I want to block sites, etc. and it isn't disruptive or annoying. Actually, it is comforting b/c I have learned that even reputable sites have lurking ad/spyware. Only problem I have had thus far is that I didn't completely remove all of my other spyware/malware programs and my computer was sluggish. Once I did that, everything was fine. As far as I can tell, this program is on it - way more than any factory installed program. If I had had the program longer at the time of this review, I would probably give it 5 stars, as long as all stays well.

I'm surprised I don't see Spyware Doctor everywhere after buying it myself. I've dropped AVG after it got to where it chugged all my computers to a halt all while being essentially helpless against everything on the internet and falsely identifying as hostile (and deleting) my own stuff. Spyware Doctor w/Antivirus, although not as fast as the regular Spyware Doctor for obvious reasons, is still not too resource hungry, will get out of my way when I want it to, and blocks even the mildest of irritants. It even cuts off alot of non-malicious advertising to take some distractions out of surfing. It will occassionally offer to block something that you will want to leave alone, like youtube add-ins, but at least it prompts when there's a question about it instead of assuming.As far as actually stopping virii, it's helped me out where AVG failed to get rid of the False Alerts virus that's plagued the internet the last year, and it found over a hundred other trojans and nasties that AVG left behind. I still keep Malware Bytes around just in case, but I have yet to need since getting this software.Last but not least, getting three licenses with each purchase is great. A lot of people today have a laptop and several desktops in the house, and this saved me plenty of money.Overall very pleased; I've used AVG, Norton, McAfee, Avira, and Trend Micro, and this software is so far the best i've tried.

Tried to install on my computer but could not because when i typed license number in it came back as an expired. Also found out this software will not available after May 18, 2013 so I paid for something I cannot use.

Although product is fairly good at finding problems it uses so much of the computers resources that it brought my laptops down to there knees. I virtually couldn't use another program. My desktop is fairing much better, so I am almost ready to de-install the software from the desktop and have already done so on my laptop.