Free malware cleaner?

[dhom]

I heard about a free malware cleaner recently called A2 and am wondering if anyone else has used it and can give a brief review:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/

Thanks if you can help!

[sremick]

I've heard of A2. I think they're legit. I haven't really used it though. I'd only be interested in knowing what it caught that wasn't caught after a run of both Spybot and Ad-Aware. Typically I use those along with some manual surgery with HijackThis with excellent results.

[dhom]

I became interested in A2 for the same reason, as I read a post on a private message board from someone who normally runs Spybot and Ad-Aware. He said that A2 caught some problems that the other two programs didn't, but he wasn't specific about exactly what they were.

[sremick]

For what it's worth, I've found Microsoft's anti-spyware beta (which they bought by acquiring Giant) to be useful in catching stuff not found by the big two. However Microsoft's product is very quirky and has issues, especially with the real-time protection, so it has to be used carefully by a knowledgable person. The 30-day trial of Webroot Spysweeper also comes in handy, as well as Ewido.