I used to use Spybot and I knew what to do

[bgranat]

I used to use Spybot and I knew what to do because it was obvious -- you clicked something, and something else happened. When the scan was done, you were told in plain English what was going on. I stopped using Spybot for a few years, and I recently downloaded Spybot 2.4 and donated a small sum to support the free edition.

Concerns:

1. I am finally getting around to using the program, but I cannot find anything that tells me what I have to do or what the program is doing on its own.

2. I ran a scan manually, but the results look different than the old display, and I don't know what to do about each item.

3. I don't know anything about how the program works and can find nothing on my level of understanding (basic computer user).

4. As mentioned above -- I don't know if the program is constantly scanning or what.

Can someone point me to answers or shed any light on the above for me? If so, I would greatly appreciate it.

Is this program for people who know a lot about computers? Was I wrong to download it? Should I stop using it?

[Zenobia]

There's a first steps tutorial here:
http://www.safer-networking.org/support/first-steps-tutorial/
(You can ignore the part about sdhelper,that is no longer part of the program.)
There's a How-to section here:
http://www.safer-networking.org/support/how-tos/
Also,at the top of Spybot start center,you can click Help,then Spybot Help,which covers a lot,too.


4. As mentioned above -- I don't know if the program is constantly scanning or what.
There's a comparison page,with checks so that you can see what your version does.If you want to know more,the links are clickable:
http://www.safer-networking.org/private/compare/


2. I ran a scan manually, but the results look different than the old display, and I don't know what to do about each item.
My first two paragraphs here tell how to find out more about the results:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?71408-spybot-av-results-and-the-confusion-they-generate&p=458816&viewfull=1#post458816


Is this program for people who know a lot about computers? Was I wrong to download it? Should I stop using it?
I think sometimes people are kind of shocked when they see the newer version,and it makes them nervous because the 1.6.2 and below versions followed such a similar format for so long,and everything in the newer versions looks so different.But no,I wouldn't say it's for people who know a lot about computers.It's just quite different looking than the old ones,and takes some getting used to.No need to stop using it,it's quite simple once you know where everything is.Whenever a new version is released,I usually just go through and look at stuff,and look up what it does in the help file or the website. :)
That being said,the Spybot 1.6.2 version is still available if you ever decide you'd like to go back to the old version.It's under other downloads:
http://www.safer-networking.org/dl/