 |
|
|
|
Make sure
you're protected
on all sides |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
To avoid rust and bad connections, do not touch bare computer wires or connectors with wet or sweaty hands.
|
 
 |
|
|
 Spy Sweeper version 3.0 - part II
by Andrew Cooper
Additional instruments
These positive results were bolstered by the wealth of additional instruments Spy Sweeper brings to protect your IE Browser:
- IE favorites shield (protection against illegal modifications attempted on your Internet Explorer favorites)
- IE Home Page Shield (protection against a program covertly changing your start page address to a URL that you don't want)
- IE Hijack Shield (protects the internal operation of your Internet Explorer browser when performing predefined actions, such as starting the web search with the original search address, not the address supplied by malware)
- IE Tracking Cookies Shield ("tracking cookies" are cookies that can track your web activities. These may include cookies that contain user names, passwords, or similar information that you enter on some web sites).
A very valuable and traffic-saving option of Spy Sweeper is that it can prevent annoying ads from being displayed in your browser when the ad is known to be from a maintained list of ad-distributing sites. Simply put, when Spy Sweeper finds that a specific advertisement banner is coming from a site that is a known ad-supplier, it simply blocks the banner and displays an empty frame. Like many others, I find flashy advertisements annoying and distractive, so this feature is very welcome to me.
As with many other programs of this type, SS also has an advanced sweep scheduler, which is quite simple to use and informative.
For users of Windows Messenger service (not to be confused with Instant Messenger), the program has the ability to prevent unwanted ads from being displayed there also.
Furthermore, Spy Sweeper also tracks the behavior of various Windows components, like controlling the startup registry, evaluating your running memory content and alerting you if suspicious modules are active, as well as blocking spyware from attempts to illicitly install themselves.
I very much like that this program is clearly a finished product; polished to a fine glow. All previous editions and modifications have smoothed the edges and produced a crystal clear, precise and professional product.
The few things I disliked were minor: the assessment of time remaining till the completion of a sweep process was way off (the first 99 percent of the sweep progress lasted less than the remaining one percent); and the user's inability to select particular folders to be "swept" from the main program (this is only available from Windows Explorer).
Verdict
The program is simple to work with; it's small and operates well. Some minor shortcomings were encountered, which can be easily removed in updates. All necessary actions worked well to successfully disable objectionable software.
The sole discouraging aspect of the program is that the user has to buy the program straight away, so is not given a chance to see the fully-functional product as a free trial version, which prevents the definitions of new spyware being downloaded in order to fully test the handling of the latest malware that surfaces daily.
Developer's web site: http://www.webroot.com
Back to Part I
|
|
|
|
|
|
Make "PC Flank" your
Start Page!
|
|
|
