New to Spybot

[tigertim71]

I'm new to spybot so am looking for some advice.

I've got an old laptop running very nicely and idling at around 135MB out of a 160MB (max capacity) physical RAM.

If I install spybot, will my memory usage shoot up, or is there a way that I can install it as a minimal installation so it takes very little idling RAM, but just during on demand updates and scans?

Thanks...

[DougCuk]

All the scanning and spyware removal elements of Spybot are "on-demand" and do not consume any RAM unless you run the program. So you can benefit from all the scanning and removal features with no hit on RAM for day to day operation.

There are two optional resident protection modules that do run in the background if selected. The two resident modules are called "Teatimer" and "SD Helper or Resident IE". Teatimer protects the whole PC - while SD Helper is an addon (Helper Object) for Internet Explorer .

Both these modules can be deselected during installation - you can also select or deselect them from inside the installed program using the Advanced Mode menus.

With the limited amount of RAM you have I suggest disabling both to start off - try adding SDHelper if you use Internet Explorer - and see if you are happy with it.
Teatimer is a different issue as it is a memory hog (50Mb+) and I doubt you could support it on your system.

[tigertim71]

Thanks very much - I'll make sure to disable at least teatimer when installing.

[tigertim71]

Just a couple of additional questions on this - when the installation process asks to back up the registry, is it worth doing this, or are there any dangers?!

And just how much RAM does SDHelper on its own use?


Thanks

[drragostea]

tigertim, I would suggest backing up the registry (no dangers involved, you have nothing to lose) when Spybot asks you to.

SDHelper is an Addon in Microsoft Internet Explorer. It does not consume RAM.

[tigertim71]

OK- this all makes sense now. I was wondering if anyone had used Spybot with ClamWin and found any conflict between both applications?

[Gopher John]

OK- this all makes sense now. I was wondering if anyone had used Spybot with ClamWin and found any conflict between both applications?

I've not seen a conflict between the two in the past few years I've used them both. OTOH, I don't use TeaTimer so others will have to answer about that.

[drragostea]

Spybot and TeaTimer do not have any conflicts with ClamAV. There's nothing to worry about.