I have used quite a few of them, and I must say that there are three or four I could recommend.

For spyware only, Spybot works well detecting bots and cookies, reasonably good at detecting trojans and backdoors. Though for trojans and backdoors I'd suggest AVG anti-spyware 7.5 or AVG Anti-virus 7.5.

Also there are PrevX 2, which is a considerable upgrade from PrevX 1, however, the interface which is much more streamlined, has a penchant for wanting to verify every executable file, and the verification sometimes can hang, (in computer lingo, it's called starvation queue.)

For more advanced users, there is Hijack This. Hijack This targets the registry for potential problems, which can be the source of the ilk that may diminish your computer's performance; BUT if you're not comfortable using it, then I wouldn't suggest it. IT will modify your registry entries for Windows.

Ad-aware is good for checking and removing ad-ware, but rarely does it detect more serious problems.

I would avoid McAfee (cumbersome), Norton (resource hog), and at all costs if you can help it, Windows OneCare. I haven't used onecare, but I do subscribe to Maximum PC which rated OneCare the WORST spyware detector and cleaner available.

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