"John" wrote in message news:y8Mqj.10267$w57.10047@edtnps90...
>I bought this product ages ago and it has been very good. But the
>latest incarnation of it crashes my systems (WinXPsp2 and Vista)
http://www.webroot.com/En_US/consume...pysweeper.html
Lists support only for 32-bit versions of Windows, including Vista.
Do you know that a 32-bit version of the OS (Vista x86) was installed?
Or are you running the 64-bit version (Vista x64)?
If the OS was pre-installed, it is likely (but not necessarily true)
that Vista x86 was installed even if the hardware is 64-bit. The
manufacturers do this to reduce tech support calls because of the
continuing problems (lack of availability or compatibility) with
64-bit support by drivers and applications. When users install the
OS, they tend to install Vista x64 on 64-bit hardware before
researching the availability of drivers and applications and rarely
test that environment to ensure those 64-bit drivers and applications
will work without errors.
It has probably been around 3 years since I trialed SpySweeper. At
that time, it generated far too many false positives. Hell, one false
positive was just having a folder (not a URL shortcut but just a
folder) called "Finance" under your Favorites folder. SpySweeper was
extremely slow for on-demand scanning (more than twice the time for
other anti-malware products). After hitting 5 false positives within
a month (they used to have 1-month trial versions but now just have
the freebie scan-only version), I gave up on the product and got rid
of it. It could've improved since then but I found other multiple
free alternatives (to provide overlapped coverage since no one
anti-malware product provides full coverage). Visit
http://www.malware-test.com/ and check the coverage rates (now
1/2-year old). From other coverage tests done a year earlier,
SpySweeper was at 56% back then and after a year it had not improved.
That is the *detection* rate. The cleanup success rate for SpySweeper
is down at 27%. This report includes a mix of various pest types
which many anti-malware products do not test, like viruses, under the
presumption that you will incorporate an anti-virus program with their
anti-malware program. Due to the blurring of pest behaviors, many
commercialware products now try to detect a blend of pests (viruses,
trojans, spyware, adware, tracking cookies, rootkits, etc.).
You can never claim the value of an anti-malware program that has
never been tested. You say that SpySweeper has been a good product
for the ages that you have used the product. Well, did it EVER detect
a pest? An anti-malware product that never alerts you to a pest
either never found one (which could be a problem with coverage by the
product) or you never had any on your computer (not likely, even if
caught in the traffic to your host, unless you have been extremely
selective as to where you connect). If it never alerted you to a
pest, maybe it is a worthless product. That's like saying an
anti-virus program is excellent based on never issuing an alert of a
virus on your host. That doesn't mean there is no pest. It could
mean the product isn't capable of detecting the pest. That is why
multiple anti-malware products are required (not all running but used
for on-demand scanning) to provide overlapped coverage since some
products catch pests that are missed by other products. Also, if
SpySweeper ever did alert you, and it was something other than
tracking cookies (which are NOT malware because they are just .txt
files but the commercial programs want you to see their product do
something), did it actually eradicate the pest without leaving the OS
or application in an unusable state?
You would be better off dumping SpySweeper and getting a combination
of multiple free anti-malware programs (but not have them all running
and instead use as on-demand scanners): Grisoft's AVG Antispyware
(was ewido when Grisoft acquired it), SuperAntispyware, Windows
Defender, Lavasoft Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and rootkit detectors
(SysInternals, AVG AntiRootkit, Resplendence Rootkit Hook Analyzer).
Obviously you need to check if they support whatever Windows version
(and 32- or 64-bit) that you are running. Then include the free
online scanners (they want to install ActiveX controls to run a local
client that does the scanning): Symantec Security Check, McAfee
FreeScan, TrendMicro Housecall, ESET Online Scan, and F-Secure
Healthcheck. Of course, this is in addition to a good anti-virus
program (just remember the freebie versions have disabled features,
like script blocking, so the coverage quoted for their full version
doesn't apply to their free version - the signature database is the
same but the behaviors that they detect will be crippled in the free
version).
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