yep; I mainly was saying that the latest release of Spybot is a major one, and it seems they are trying to address the concern I was speaking of - namely, spyware/trackware/theftware.
What "theft" is in the cyberworld today is one of those moral-relativism exercises: it depends on "local laws" and there is no "local" in things internet. That's why I posted the wired.com article on kaspersky and those who look to his outfit for help.
what's "legal" simply because of a lack of prosecution would not be "legal" to you if you are the target. Witness Google's "arrest" in Germany for flagrantly violating German privacy laws. The attitude is "catch us... catch us, bring us to trial, and we'll see what we can get away with".
So, hopefully there are other good outfits working on after-the-breach scanning, but I had the impression from a couple of encounters with the new Spybot that they are going to turn over every rock and give the user a LOT of detail; then its up to you to decide what to do with it. Definitely not a tool for a technophobe - I would not recommend it to a client, though I might use it myself.
I've never liked Spybot for realtime. Just doesn't do a good enough job for the hit you take in resources. The best way to do "realtime" is at the browser - you have far more chance of being compromised via the browser/bho's/etc than any other way.
And... repeating myself and ditto'ing others from many pages back: good 'ole WinPatrol is still a worthy product for non-technical folks who just want a little extra protection from things they don't understand. I recommend it to people who have been hit multiple times, have zero skills or logical/serial-thinking about such things, but want a chance to stop a mistake. I just tell them: "unless you are 110% dead-CERTAIN that you understand what its flagging, just say "NO""
The main reason I like, use, recommend, install AVAST is that it does a spectacular job at "super-browser" level checking of sites. In fact, if you want to quickly see the glaring weakness [missing element, really] of MSE.... install AVAST, browse the "dark underbelly" sites like gamer-thieves, hacking sites, filesharing sites, and watch how many times AVAST flags and prevents your actions. then install MSE and go to the same URL's.
Hi zapp, we have been finding Spybot will not play well with w7. I used it on 95 and XP but kept crashing my 7 install plus slowing the whole system.
You may want to look at hardware security appliance for threat mediation and scanning.
E-Class Network Security Appliance Series - Dell SonicWALL, Inc.
So far with avast I have had very good luck,also have malwarebytes on the side like you do and it works wonders. 
