Spybot-S&D’s Tools menu controls several tools associated with Internet Explorer and services that run at startup. One of the programs you will notice here is the Resident tool. The Resident tool is a continuously running security program. Presently, the Resident tool section provides a browser application for Internet Explorer that prevents downloads of known malicious software, such as spyware installers.

Spybot-S&D also monitors ActiveX controls currently installed on your system. ActiveX controls are categorized by color. Green entries are legitimate ActiveX controls. Red entries mark controls related to spyware. Black entries are not known to the Spybot-S&D database.

The BHOs tab displays information about Browser Helper Objects (BHOs). BHOs are small programs-often ActiveX controls-that extend Internet Explorer’s capabilities. Because they are integrated with your browser, BHOs have access to each Web site you visit. Green entries are legitimate BHOs. Red entries are associated with spyware.
Black entries are unknown to Spybot-S&D.

If you have any concerns about a BHO in this list, you can easily disable it. Click on the BHO to be disabled. At the top of the BHO window, click on the toggle button. Disabled BHOs will then appear grayed out in the BHO list.

On the Brower Pages tab, Spybot-S&D also provides protection against browser-hijacking agents that can reset the start or search page in Internet Explorer. If your browser start page or search page is changed and cannot be reset through IE, the new URL will probably show up in this list.

To reset the offending URL, and ensure the URL is added to the next Spybot-S&D update, click on the URL your browser has been redirected to. At the top of the screen, click on the Change button. Enter the new URL. After changing the URL, mail the offending address to  detections at spybot.info. The URL will be added to the list of known bad URLs.

Spybot-S&D comes with its own hosts file that contains an extensive list of Web sites known for spyware that you can view on the Hosts File tab. When this file is installed, no content from any of the sites in it will be displayed. To install the Spybot-S&D hosts file, click on the Hosts File tab.

At the top of the Hosts File screen, click on Add Spybot-S&D Hosts List. The Spybot-S&D Hosts File will now be used instead of your default Hosts File. To remove the Spybot-S&D Hosts File, click on Remove Spybot-S&D Hosts List.

The Process List tab displays all processes running on your system. Although any process may be killed (stopped) through this menu, it is intended primarily as information for technical support, and to be included in a system report.

To kill a process in this list, select the process you want to kill from the list. At the top of the Process list window, click on the button marked Kill. Spybot-S&D will then stop the process.