Free Stand-Alone Products
There are a lot of stand-alone products that work well if you keep them updated as much as you should. Life is hard enough by the existence of malware all over the world and though some spyware are more on the identity theft side of the law, they are still malware and should be treated as seriously as other forms of malware. True to this, some of them open doors for more serious threats, being used as a litmus test by hackers to probe the internet for vulnerable computers and mobiles. They may already be within your computer system or network without much fuss, so firewalls and other intrusion prevention systems are a must to keep you safe from all of these threats that plagues the net.
If you do happen to have a dedicated stand-alone anti-spyware program installed, you may want to click on the update button more often for unlike full products, they may or may not do this automatically. You should also consider running scans frequently for without the protection of the many suite products, you may have already been infiltrated by spyware that may be lurking under the radar so to speak. They are a threat and all threats should be eliminated to keep your desktop or computer safe for use, moreso if you happen to have one that is used by the whole family which can result in massive information loss for the whole family.