PC Tools is touting a new study that claims Windows Defender can’t detect nearly half the spyware threats it encounters. But the company glosses over two facts: The study was in fact paid for by PC Tools; and a beta version of Windows Defender was tested, not the final version.
The Australian testing company Enex Testlab found that Windows Defender found only 53.3 percent of malware threats during 2006, a poor showing compared to other pieces of anti-spyware.
The best performer of the bunch was PC Tools Spyware Doctor. Not so coincidentally, PC Tools paid Enex Testlab to perform and publicize the tests. In addition, Windows Defender was in beta testing through most of 2006, and was only pronounced finished in October.
Do I trust the test results, considering that PC Tools paid for them? Of course not. Who would? How could anyone believe the tests to be unbiased?
I also don’t trust tests that another anti-spyware company, Webroot, performed, which also found Windows Defender to do poorly.
PC Tools chief executive Simon Clausen, though, defended the Enex Testlab tests. According to PC Advisor, he called them “an independent and unbiased review.” Given that the tests were paid by PC Tools, they’re hardly independent and unbiased. Ironically, Clausen criticized the Webroot tests as being unfair.
I can’t claim to know the truth about which anti-spyware product is the best. But when it comes to gauging the truth of most things, I follow the old rule pursued by Woodward and Bernstein in the Watergate case, “Follow the money.” If you do that, you end up at PC Tools, and they’re hardly an unbiased observer.
VCD Cutter
Kind of funny that a paid study found something was better than a MS product. Aren't those kind of studies usually funded by Microsoft?
Small Joke intended.
Their product is miserable. It protects well the OS but has huge resource consumption, it even blocks the IE from using the microsoft update site. I complained about this to their support and nix, of course I got back some bla-bla ... but not a solution, I had to disable-it for having the machine still running(PIV with 1GB RAM!) Because of the poor support and not offering a resolution to the problem I didn't renewed my subscription ... shame to you PC Tools ...