Specifications

Page 14
REVIEW
Free is not enough
By Terry Currier
[e-mail]
I have used and like Ad-Aware
anti-spyware from Lavasoft
http://www.lavasoft.com
for some time now and I felt it was
do ing a good job. I’ve tried Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en
but af ter it locked up my sys tem while
try ing to up date, I took it off.
Spy Sweeper
While looking at other
anti-spyware programs, I came
across Spy Sweeper from Webroot.
I’m familiar with some of the
company’s other programs and liked
them, so I thought I would try it. My
son wanted to play some online
game with me through AOL that
required me to install a program.
Spy Sweeper came up with a
warning saying that the program
from WildTangent was a known
spyware. I told it to go ahead and
install the program. When done with
the online game, I uninstalled it
through the Windows Control Panel.
I then ran Ad-Aware to see what it
would do. Even after the uninstall,
there was still some trace of
WildTangent which Ad-Aware
found. After all that, it was Spy
Sweeper’s turn. It ran and found
there were still some remnants of
WildTangent hiding in the registry. I
was truly impressed, and could see
that Ad-Aware was not enough.
You can get spyware from many
places and never realize it and I’m
not just talking about cookies.
Spyware includes adware,
keyloggers, Trojans, system
monitors, browser hijackers, and
dialers. Keyloggers are the worst.
Since they capture keystrokes, they
can capture personal information
like your social security number,
bank account numbers, passwords,
or credit card numbers. They can
come from software you install and
not know what the install is really
doing. I did read the license
agreement for Wild Tangent and it
even stated they would install
applications commonly called
spyware. Most people
will not read the long
statement. Just visiting
some websites or
opening spam mail
can cause you to have
spyware loaded onto
your computer.
You can download
a 30-day trial version
to see how you like it.
When you do, it gives you
the first updated download
of spyware definitions. As
of January 2005, that was about
49,000. After that, you must
subscribe for further updates. It will
remove and defend against spyware
and adware installations as they
happen. You can schedule regular
scans or perform one manually to
find and remove spyware and
adware from your PC. Found
spyware and adware is put into
quarantine, disabling them. From
there, you can hold them to make
sure everything still runs correctly,
delete, or restore them. I like that it
gives you information about the file,
such as where it is located, what
type of file it is, and what it does.
The Options setup has a check
box option for adding Sweep option
to Windows Explorer Content
Menu. Choosing that is a good
option. I can right click on any
folder (such as my downloads
folder) or file and have it checked
for spyware, without having to wait
for a full sweep.
Look at the Shields module. Spy
Sweeper will put up a barrier to help
protect you from future spyware
attacks. It stops unwanted changes