[Bungleau]

Originally posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood: Spybot S&D This may have a window that pops up asking for donations. It does so once, as I recall; at least, I can't remember the last time I've seen it Ad-Aware Some features are only enabled if you buy the full version. IT will still clean, however, and provide basic protection. It shouldn't encourage you more than once to upgrade to the pay version (unless you try to use something that's only in the pay version) AVG Anti-virus I think it asks you once when you first get started. It doesn't ask again after that, as I recall, although it may ask again if you upgrade to a newer version. ZoneAlarm When you first install, it asks if you'd like to install the full product as a trial, buy the full product, or install the free product. If you installed the trial, it will ask you to upgrade when the trial expires. If you don't, it puts you back down to the free version, which has less functionality. I don't bother with the trial any more; I just install the basic version. I tried all of these. Some seemed like they wanted to take over too much. When I ran 1 of them, it searched, then asked if I wanted to clean things. I said said yes and it brought up a window to register and said save $10 now! At that point I closed everything and removed it. This sounds like the ZoneAlarm registration window. It will offer you a discount if you upgrade to the paid version; you don't have to, though.

I can tell you that none of these requires a payment in order to protect and clean your system. I have made a donation to Spybot in the past, but I have not paid any money to the others. And I made the donation to Spybot because I felt like it, not because the software insisted.

I think you may be giving these tools a bad rap. I'd encourage you to try them again.