AdWare SpyWare SE

While this application offers a decent set of features, it's not as robust as it needs to be to fight the ever-present threat of pernicious adware. Adware Spyware SE scans your computer (memory, Registry, and hard disk) for threats, whether they be adware or spyware. It also monitors computer processes, items that launch during start-up, and browser settings (such as bookmarks) for undesirable programs. One of our biggest complaints is how the application handles ActiveX. Instead of gauging the threat of specific ActiveX programs, it simply blocks all of them. What's more, during testing we intentionally installed several well-known spyware components to see if Adware Spyware SE would nab them; unfortunately, it didn't. To top it all off, the demo won't even remove the components it does find; you have to pay for that privilege. Overall, while the program's feature set is good, its performance and trial restriction leave something to be desired.