Setting an effective antispyware shield is not only recommended, but has become a necessity because of a rapidly growing spyware menace. Antivirus and firewall protection are not sufficient to exclude the vulnerabilities. Even with reliable software, some types of malware can still sneak into the system due to improper configuration of firewall or antivirus. Considering that many modern programs have lots of advanced settings to tackle, the sense behind those being unknown to ordinary users, it simple to understand why a protected system can become a victim of spyware invasion.

That's why a spyware shield is an important part of the overall PC security. However, because of the insane number of antispyware products offered by the software industry, it may be a tough task to choose a program that would guarantee a decent lever of PC protection.

•        Ability to detect, remove and prevent from infecting the system: adware, trojans, worms, rootkits, spyware, dialers;

•        Option to set scheduled scans;

•        Frequent automatic updates (preferably daily, or at least every other day);

•        Real-time protection combined with heuristics scanner;

•        Ability to identify malicious processes caused by "unknown" malware, and effective block them before any damage is done to the system;

•        Resident protection module should be immune to malware attempts to corrupt the program.

These features are crucial for an effective antispyware shield, but of course there are many others that may be of interest to certain groups of users. Some like the ability to customize skins of the antispyware program, while others enjoy animation. But in fact, these are optional peculiarities which have nothing to do with the performance of antispyware shield.

Also, it is very good if antispyware software works both in Safe Mode and Normal Mode. Ability to run a start-up scan is always a welcome, as well as the on-demand scan initiated from the context menu of the right mouse.

If the features listed above are properly implemented in the software engine, then it is a sure sign of an effective PC antispyware shield.

Next: Best Free Antispyware