What Are PUPS and is "Registry Cleaner" spyware?

[Ratty]

Hi, new to here, thanks for having the forum.

I scanned and it came up that my "Registry Cleaner" is some sort of spyware or something. I came here and see it listed under "PUPS" which I can't find in the deffinitions or anything here on the site.

So....what are PUPS (and please don't say young dogs) and is "Registry Cleaner" spyware that I actually paid for like an idiot?

Thanks for any help,
Rats

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

"Possible UnPopular Software"
There is some stuff - like Registry Cleaner where the makers state they're not "spyware" and it's quite difficult to prove that they actually do "spy".

We don't even name some "spyware" in the threat description, but as they are located in Spybots.sbi, they complain. So, we thought about how to solve this problem by creating another file, named XYZ, where we move such stuff. That way, they can't complain about being listed as "spyware" based on the fact that they're located in Spybots.sbi, and we can continue to detect them without fearing any consequences (we wouldn't change the threat description itself, of course).

All products belonging to the "PUPS" are not selected to be fixed automatically after the scan is done. This means the user can decide for himself whether he wants them to be deleted or not.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot