When it comes to crushing the evils of spyware and adware, AdAware is the undisputed king of the castle, and many people don’t even bother considering an alternative such is its popularity. However, there are a few genuine pretenders to AdAware’s crown, including the rather smart AVG Anti-Spyware.

Let’s start with a little dig at the developer’s slightly misleading branding of the product – AVG Anti-Spyware is not, in fact, a complete security suite because it doesn’t support detection of viruses and worms. It does though, do a sterling job at trawling your files for spyware and Trojans, and used in conjunction with a decent anti-virus app and a firewall you transform your PC into a fortress.

AVG Anti-Spyware boasts an incredibly simple interface and manages to cram a bevy of features into a single interface while still making everything look crystal clear. These options include a series of innovations not seen in other anti-spyware products, such as the ability to download test bugs, send infected files to the developer for testing, view and remove start-up apps with ease, and view reports of previously-saved scans. What’s more, it can automatically update the software online to obtain the latest spyware definitions.

When matched up against the might of AdAware, AVG Anti-Spyware performs admirably. Performing a full system scan with AVG Anti-Spyware is actually slightly quicker than its more popular rival, and the program managed to intercept several dubious files that AdAware missed. Having said this, when run the other way around, our tests showed that AdAware spotted dozens more than this that were ignored by AVG Anti-Spyware. Nevertheless, its ease-of-use, speed, and unique bug-bashing features make AVG Anti-Spyware a worthy alternative.