I have AVG on XP (machine I'm writing this from) and Avast on two other machines, Vista and W98SE. If I bump into one of those bogus anti-spyware website links, immediately AVG stops me in my tracks (despite me not invoking all of the online protection). Avast is quite happy to let them through and even allow their alleged scanning. Has anyone else noticed this? Also, when I right click the context menu's to scan a file each of the following programs scan, then give an indication of whether anything was found: "SpyBot, A-Squared, MalwareBytes, and AVG". Not so Avast, which scans the file then the screen vanishes leaving me none the wiser. According to a website you have to (boringly) go the the program folder > Data > Reports folder. There is a log file there but no sign of my scan. What's the trick - I assume I've missed the obvious? some other bloke...

Yipee, I've managed to sort the file scanning issue. You right click the Avast tray icon then go Program Settings > Common > tick the box marked "Show results of Explorer Extension". I gather that all hell breaks loose if an infected files is scanned anyhow. As for those rogue Anti-Spyware sites, I trust Avast will pick them up in the course of time. Maybe you are alerted if you are naieve enough to actually invoke the bogus software - dunno. some other bloke...