Anyone who has had to deal with cleaning up infected machines has heard about SpySweeper. This tool is a gem. These people provide definition updates more frequently than enyone else...

One nice feature in this version is the ability to lock down your host file ...

Zone Alarm also locks down the hosts file.

SpySweeper reports Backweb as possible spyware. They warn you that Backweb has a lot of legitimate uses (include F-Secure Antivirus). Just a note to be careful about removing Backweb when using SpySweeper.

if you configure it right it will only scan the stuff thats a nuisance.i've had it on my pc for the last 6mths and have no problems.updates are usually weekly or twice a week

Yes, you are right. You can configure a white list of sorts.

I have used it for about a year now. I noticed that it finds stuff that others do not.

just be aware that this latest version has a lot of bugs in it,i decided to stay with a previous release(version 1.514414 with subscriptions)as the latest one gave me heaps of problems but as i said before if you configure it properly it will do the job just depends on which version you use