I'm considering a $30 per year subscription, but I'm interested in pro or con opinions, or other anti spyware I should check out first.

I use ad-Aware & Spybot they are free. I don't know about webroots version if it good or not.

Are you using Firefox as your browser?  Dumping IE and using Firefox will eliminate most if not all spyware from infecting your PC in the first place.

Spysweeper is very good at detecting existing spyware and since it is running memory resident it will prevent spyware from installing on your system.  There are also a number of shields that will prevent  browser hijacks, adding bookmarks without your approval, adding programs to your startup, a cookie shield etc.

Here's a review of spyware detection programs: www.anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=spysweeper

I switched to Firefox about 6 weeks ago.

Spy Sweeper will pick up things that Spy-Bot and Ad-Aware over look.  They have a time limited trial.  Download Spy-Bot and Ad-Aware, run them, then run Spy Sweeper and see everything they missed.

Internet Explorer is the absolute worst POS browser there is in terms of spyware...I'm sure they make it that way on purpose.  Once you get spyware bad enough, NONE of these spyware removers are gonna fix it.  I had Adaware, Spybot, and 3 or 4 others, but I finally gave up, reformatted my drive, and started from scratch.  The only time I used IE was to download Firefox, then I erased all the shortcuts to it on all my computers so my idiot friends can't use it when they come over and surf the web lol.  

Firefox is the bomb...NO more spyware, malware, or anything else, regardless of where/what you serf.  And no annoying pop up windows, either.  Get it NOW, and save your $30.  

Unfortunately some websites are using ActiveX and you still need IE to use the Winblows Update facility so you can't just dump it completely.

If you are using a version of Firefox prior to 1.0PR (Firefox/0.10.1) you need to do a clean reinstall of the new version.  There were several potential security exploits that were fixed in 0.10.1. Make sure you backup your profile directory so you can restore some of the user files that you may need. You will also have to reinstall any of the extensions that you were using.

www.winguides.com/regmech/

 This program has been the most effective i have used to restore my computer after i have any any noticeable change in speed or fuction of programs.

 This is not anti spyware program but repairs what those programs do in your registry which the anti spywear programs fail to catch.

 I use spyware and one other program as well, they seem to work well together.

I have used Spysweeper for the past 2 years.
It picks up stuff that Spybot and AdAware miss.
Of course the SB and AA pick up stuff that Spysweeper misses.

This is what the lastest update looks like:


Since XP SP2 has come out, since I use both the Google pop-up blocker and the SP2 pop-up blocker, since I have the java/active-x shit turned off, since the latest edition of Spysweeper, Spybot and AdAware all warn/alert if something tries to fuck with IE and since I use a hardware /  software and XP SP2 firewalls I have not had any problems using IE.

Of course I use Forefox.....