First run

Tutorial

The first time you start Spybot-S&D, it will display a Wizard, a small window helping you through the first steps. It gives you the possibility to add or remove the icons you have or haven't created during install, for example. Lets just say you want them and procede to the next page. If you are using a proxy in Internet Explorer, Spybot-S&D will show you this proxy and a button will give you the opportunity to use it for Spybot-S&D, too. If the text field is blank, you don't need to do it, but in most cases this will show an internet address, and you should import this proxy setting. The next page deals with updates. It is very important to keep up-to-date. Using the two buttons this page offers will do the updates for you, if you want to do it at a later point, use the update feature in the Spybot-S&D section. The last page of the wizard will ask you to read the help file. It looks like you are already doing this :)

Doing a scan

Tutorial

After the tutorial has finished, you may find yourself on the Settings or Update page. As the default settings are ok right now, and you've already updated, lets ignore them for now and do the first scan. On the left side of the program you can find a navigation bar that can lead you to all functions of the program. The first section there (the top-most button) is labeled Spybot-S&D and leads you to the main page. Right now, you will see only an empty list and a toolbar at the top. The first button in this toolbar is named Check for problems - that is the button you've got to press to start the scanning. Lean back and watch the scan progress.

Interpreting the results

Tutorial

At this point, you could just jump to the last point, and remove the results. Instead we recommend that you first have a look at what all the stuff is that Spybot-S&D detected. The first thing you should know is to distinguish between the red entries, which represent spyware and similar threats, and the green entries, which are usage tracks. For the usage tracks (I hope you have followed that link to read what they are), removal is non-critical, but depends on your personal preferences. Ignoring the usage tracks for now, you should have a look at the red entries which represent the real threats. While you of course can trust us that we have chosen the targets using strict criteria, you can check for yourself if you click on each product and then on the grey button on the right you can read the product information in an appearing box.

Decision on exceptions

Tutorial

All problems displayed in red are regarded as real threats and should be dealt with. But while you read the product description (you can find it by selecting an item in the list and then clicking on the grey button on the right side), you may still decide to keep a threat, or just a usage track. Maybe you don't want your list of most recently used Word documents removed? At this point you have three options. You could decide on ignoring all usage tracks. In that case you could open the File sets page on the Settings section of the program, and disable the Usage tracks entries. Or if you want to just keep all tracks from a specific product, just right-click a product in the results list. Finally, if you want to keep just one file, that is possible the same way.

Removing the threats found

Tutorial

So now you should know about everything you've found. It's time to use the Fix selected problems button. Once you start thinking about removing the usage tracks, too, you may think that ticking all the green entries is hard work. This is for a simple reason - to force you, the newbie - to look at the results. Once you know what you are dealing with, there is a hidden Select all button available for you on the settings page (only when started in advanced mode).