Does Spybot conflict with McAfee security?

Q I run Vista Home Premium on my Dell laptop and have McAfee security installed. Recently I have started receiving unwanted adverts that open up automatically on top of web pages I am viewing.

No matter what security settings I try the problem persists. What I want to know is: if I install Spybot Search and Destroy will it solve this problem or will it conflict with the McAfee security?
Les Gibson

A It’s possible that the ads you’re seeing are standard pop-ups that appear when viewing web pages.

These sometimes appear as ‘rollovers’ on top of text in the same window as the web page, or as separate windows that appear alongside the page you’re viewing.

You can block many of these using a pop-up blocker, something that’s included with both Firefox and Internet Explorer. If not, you may well have been infected with some spyware, which you may be able to remove using Spybot or similar software.

Spybot is not going to conflict with your McAfee software, and nor should any other single-purpose spyware-killing software, such as Adaware.

A problem will only arise if you install two anti-virus programs or two firewalls on the same computer.

Although the McAfee suite will contain all these, Spybot and Adaware are only spyware killers and will not conflict with the site.