Today, an effective antispyware program is just as important as an antivirus program. Sometimes both are packaged into one program that protects against all types of infections, but some users look for a separate antispyware solution.

If you already have an antivirus program but don’t have spyware protection, you should review my list of top 10 antispyware programs and perhaps try one of them.

I tried to find and list free programs only, but I couldn’t ignore the great reviews and effectiveness of the first two programs on the list. Maybe they are really worth the money?

My 10 choices are:

1. Spy Sweeper (buy or free trial)
2. CounterSpy (buy)
3. Spyware Terminator (free)
4. Spyware Doctor (free)
5. SpywareBlaster (free)
6. SUPERAntiSpyware (free edition or buy pro version for $30)
7. CA Antispyware (buy - around $40)
8. Spybot Search & Destroy (free)
9. Ad-Aware Personal Edition (free)
10. Spyware Detector (buy for $30)

Also, try CW Shredder (against CoolWebSearch spyware).

Update: My new favorite Antispyware program is Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. I just used it to clean a heavily infected PC and it found and removed most threats in less than 5 minutes. One of my friends also used it on his PC when it was taken over by spyware and kept shutting it down. Malwarebytes was the only thing that worked in this case. Make sure you try it!