Webroot Spy Sweeper

Rating:
Summary: Spy Sweeper is The Best Antispyware You Can Buy
Review: My Top Five Rated Anti-spywares:

1) Spy Sweeper v2.6 or 3.0 by Webroot Software *
2) Ad-Aware by Lavasoft v6.0 (paid full versions) *
3) Ad-Aware by Lavasoft v6.0 (free version)
4) Spybot Search & Destroy v1.3 (free, donation-ware) by Safer-Networking-org
5) McAfee Antispyware 2005 v1.0 * ( newly released but already highly rated and moving up fast)

* - These antispywares use real time scanning of system memory to detect spyware before it invades your system.

I have used all the above Antispyware and at this point in time Spy Sweeper seems to do the best job at detecting and removing Spyware/Adware/Tracking cookies and it has the most extensive set of options. The interface is simple and effective and allows you to customize it exactly to your needs. Choose to protect your Internet Explorer 6 browser homepage from adware changes, block tracking cookies, schedule system scans, enable automatic detections updates, allow it to ignore detecting friendly softwares or automatically delete malware. You can even highlight the discovered spyware and click on an information link which connects to Webroot's spyware database to tell you more details about each of the bad software pests that were detected on your computer. I have found Spy Sweeper to detect more spyware and more spyware traces left on your system than any of the others I have tried. After running Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D and even deleting the spyware they found from my computer Spy Sweeper still was able to detect numerous pests and traces of them left behind that the others missed. The only drawback is that Spy Sweeper takes much longer to do a complete scan of your entire system than the others but it does to do a better job scanning and detecting.

I found Spy Sweeper to have very little negative impact on my overall system speed or performance. On my a Pentium 3, 1Ghz notebook computer I am using a combination of Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware (free version), SpySweeper, and McAfee Antispyware 2005, McAfee Antivirus 2004, and Zone Alarm Pro 4.5 firewall all at the same time with the McAfee Antispyware and Spy Sweeper programs both scanning system memory and executable programs in real-time for spyware. The McAfee Antispyware program is brand new and with its current release version 1.0 does not detect tracking cookies. However, I really like the McAfee program's simple interface, its auto-updating features and its seamless integration with McAfee Antivirus 2004 and the McAfee Security Center. The McAfee Antispyware also works great as a stand alone antispyware product when coupled with any other company's antivirus software. Although at the time of this review the other antispyware programs do in fact seem to have somewhat better detection rates for the more common spywares, adwares & tracking cookies, during a recent scan of my notebook computer the McAfee Antispyware 2005 was able to detect and completely remove one very bad piece of spyware/adware that all of the other programs had completely missed.

Spybot S&D is an excellent free program (donation-ware). It is in fact rated #1 by many top security software experts and it has some very nice customizable features such as its "immunize" and "teatimer" settings which protect spyware from making changes to your computer registry or system settings. You could disagree about which is the best of the free spyware programs. Spybot S&D has an edge in preventing spyware infestations with its array of customizable features and its ability to warn you of potential weaknesses in your system security but Ad-Aware provides more frequent updates and seems to do a slightly better job at detecting spyware and adware during its full system scans. Since both Spybot and Ad-Aware (free version) are completely free you should download and use both of them. If you really like the free version of Ad-Aware you might consider purchasing one of the more complete Ad-Aware paid for full featured versions (Ad-Aware Plus or the most advanced Ad-Aware Pro) which include automatic updating and real time scanning.

This was a very close race among the top five and each one of these highly rated antispyware programs can be very effective in preventing various forms of spyware from infecting your computer but at this point in time I have to give five stars and the winning trophy for the best stand alone antispyware program to Webroot's Spy Sweeper.

Rating:
Summary: Great product
Review: So far this product has worked very well and seems to have done it's job for the most part. After buying PC Cillin Internet Security 2004(very good also), I still had some issues that remained unresolved. A trojan horse virus and tons of spy and adware along with a host of other "trash" was still comandeering my machine. The PC Cillin removed the lot of and still protects my machine, however Spy Sweeper was the icing on the cake. This program, once installed detected just about every removable piece of "ware" on my machine and only hiccuped once. I've ran it several times and each time it finds at least one more hidden item.
The only two scares I had were 1) on initial install, it seemed to want to install itself twice. Either way, the program was successful in doing that. 2) I had that nasty Gain/Gator spy/ad ware on my machine and it attached itself to my clock. Sweeper got extremely bogged down and appeared to lock up my machine when it located this one. Rather than freak out and slam the product, I waited about 15 minutes while it worked it's way through that mess. The initial scan took over 1 1/2, however when it was complete, Sweeper found over 2500 pieces of internet garbage and quarantined them. My machine is now running around 95% of it's original efficiency after the installation of these two products and the net is also much faster. I'm no guru, but I do my homework before buying anything. Many hours were spent researching this product and it's compatibility with PC Cillin and other programs I've installed. Thumbs up guys. If you can ever find us the person responsible for the spy/ad garbage, let me know...I want his head for a door knocker.

Rating:
Summary: best finder of malware I've seen
Review: this product rocks. finds spyware ands deletes it, and get a good firewall and spybot wich finds holes in your computer along with most adware and your computer is almost completly protected from all that annoying malware. Do you have that anoying adware that changes your homepage?Try Homepage Lock and it won't be bugging you for long.
Do you have a few bad cookies on your favorite site? Cookie Shield stop them dead in their tracks.some malware works right under your nose well say tata to that with memory sheild which alerts you to spyware that is running in your memory.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't slow my computer one bit!
Review: This program did not slow my computer down at all. Very easy to use and puts you r mind at ease. Easy to update definitions and program updates. Upon first scan it removed a TON of spyware off my computer OTHER THAN just cookies. Updates seem to be frequent for me to know that they are not "sleeping at the wheel." I am very happy with this product. I combined this with the Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security 2004 and it appears to be a VERY effective combination. A MUST BUY.

Rating:
Summary: Good bang for the buck, but....
Review: When I (that is to say my computer guy) upgraded my cpu's OS to Win2000Pro he included a demo copy of Spy Sweeper. As I was already subcribed to Trend Micro it took some convincing to get me to do the same with this product -- but I did.

While I've been happy with my decision, I've found that I have the greatest success running Trend Micro in the b/g & using Spy Sweeper's alerts and sweeps periodically. I haven't noticed any slowdown of my OS, although, to be honest, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference -- I also changed my processor from a Celeron700 to a P4 (3.2gb) & am still mesmerized by my new-found sense of power!

In any case, I've had no problems with Spy Sweeper thus far. It does what it claims & seems to work beautifully with Trend Micro activated.