Useful augmentation (Score 1)

Working in a little repair shop that does 90% of it's business fighting spyware, I've got an understandable interest in any new anti-spyware tool. After all, anything that makes my job easier (and keeps billable hours up) is a good thing. I normally run Ad-aware SE Personal for basic cleanups, with judicious use of msconfig and various 3rd party startup controls (Winpatrol is great!). The more obstinate machines will get hand cleaned via the previously mentioned "Google the process names" method. Massive infections get an OS reload. My own experience with MS Antispyware has been mixed. I've been running it on everything in the shop, and am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it definately has it's place. For the basic, everyday spyware cleanup, MS is just too damn slow (averaging 3 hours for a deep scan/removal). It's even too slow for moderate infections, and doesn't detect/remove enough of the threats to make the wait worthwhile. However, there is that occaisonal machine that's been completely, absolutely possessed by pure evil. The kind of machine that glows with an eerie green light as the customer brings it through the door, and sends the other techs running out the door, screaming for holy water and a legion of priests. Machines with a number of infections uncountable by modern mathematics. On these machines, MS Antispyware can often save the day. Sure, it takes 5 or 6 hours to run, and doesnt detect nearly everything that's in there (doesnt even get all the running processes), but it can usually clean out the nastiest things, which can stabilize the machine enough to run Ad-aware and Spybot, and thereby avoid a full OS reload. In short, MS Antispyware is a good "last resort" for those machines that can't be reloaded.