SPY SWEEPER
http://www.webroot.com
Reviewed April 2007
What’s It Do?
Claimed to deliver the most advanced spyware detection,
blocking and removal available, detecting and blocking emerging spyware
threats as you browse, before they reach your computer and personal
information.
Does it do what it says it does?
Reviewer 1: Yes, it appears to do a very thorough sweep, detection
and removal of any threats. My machine is pretty clean so it mostly caught
cookies but there were a few serious ones as well.
Reviewer 2: No. First, its statements that it is “recommended more
than any other anti-spyware product” and that it is “the most
technologically advanced spyware system in the world,” are
over-generalizations, unverifiable, and at best pure marketing hyperbole.
Second, its “world class customer support” is in direct opposition to the
overwhelming number of complaints by users of this program as can be
verified throughout the Internet (See “Other Comments”). Third, its
statement that it is “the only anti-spyware protection that can
dynamically disarm and defeat . . . spies without requiring a pre-defined
signature” is patently as untrue as any anti-spyware application which
uses heuristics to identify and remove spyware without relying solely on a
signature. Finally, to claim that by using Spy Sweeper you can “download
your favorite music, pictures and videos without spyware intruders” is not
only intentionally deceptive and misleading but borders on outright fraud
as it is well understood that no single ant-spyware program is capable of
identifying, blocking, and/or removing every possible piece of spyware.
Reviewer 3: SpySweeper offers a comprehensive anti-spyware solution
and it delivers on that promise.
Reviewer 4: Spy Sweeper offers detection of a variety of adware,
spyware, keyloggers, Trojans. and other types of malware...the panel did
not test the upgraded version which also offers virus sweeping and
anti-virus shields. It also offers Real time protection against these
items, provided via 15 shields, 11 of which are identified as vital to
protect against Potentially unwanted programs. My first Full System sweep
with Spy Sweeper found nothing malicious on my system. Many sweeps later,
one low risk cookie was found, quarantined then deleted. Although Spy
Sweeper did not find everything lurking in my computer, it has alerted me
to some problems as they occurred. Real time protection is a true benefit
of Spy Sweeper.
Reviewer 5: In a general sense yes. Its real-time protection seems
thorough and accurate, though it's difficult to tell if all the shields
are doing as they should – how do you tell whether nothing got through
because of the shields or because no spy attempts were made? I did not
find its sweeper performance any better than Adaware and Spybot provide in
combination. It seemed to provide decent protection and detection, but
nowhere near the best available.
Reviewer 6: A qualified yes. Spy Sweeper is one of many
anti-spyware programs currently on the market to help us to protect our
computers and even our privacy, while we use the Internet. In the course
of testing a number of these programs for the reviews done by this panel
over the past two or three years, I have found that each program has its
strengths and weaknesses. It appears that no single program is successful
in catching all the malware that reaches our computers. Similarly, some of
them will succeed in catching items that were not detected by the others.
Spy Sweeper is no exception. I did not find it to be 100% effective, but
it did isolate and remove a particularly nasty collection of programs that
the others I tried were not able to treat on one of the computers I had
installed it on.
Was it easy to install?
Reviewer 1: Yes, it installed quickly. It requires a reboot and check
for current definitions before running for the first time.
Reviewer 2: No. While it is a sizeable (10.02MB) program that
downloaded quickly and installed using a very easy to follow installation
wizard, it required a sizeable signature file update of 9.29MB (which, by
the way, created a file far in excess of the 15MB disc space requirement
stated on its Web site) which needed to be installed before running the
program. It also required a reboot after installation which then required
the registration information to be entered a second time. Worst of all, it
required me to reinstall three times before the program would work
properly (which it never really did) and it was nearly impossible to
uninstall (see below).
Reviewer 3: Installation was straightforward and fast. Entry of a
registration code was required after download but before installation. You
are prompted to upload the latest definitions at the time of installation.
Reviewer 4: Installation and set up were simple and
straightforward. Even the most novice computer user can easily master the
user interface and provide themselves with the optimum protection provided
by Spy Sweeper.
Reviewer 5: Yes. Installation was uneventful, with the default
settings being an effective combination to begin with, making for an easy
introduction and protection/scanning environment even for even beginners.
Reviewer 6: I tested this program out on three different computers.
In each case, I was able to complete the installation, but in no case did
it proceed without a hitch. Usually I ran into two or three error messages
and aborted the process. Eventually I decided to plow ahead anyway, and
see what would happen. It seems that the errors were not fatal, as I was
able to complete the installation, apparently successfully. In all cases,
during the installation, I was told that there was an update available,
and asked if I wanted to download it. I did so. The upgrades are quite
large, in fact, larger than my original file, so they are actually new
versions. The program also updates quite frequently, although no
particular information is given to explain why another version has been
released, and what it will do that the old one would not. And, as it is a
complete new installation, the computer must be rebooted to take effect.
Good Points:
Reviewer 1: Spysweeper is fairly fast. The average “full sweep”
time on my loaded machine (194,656 files) was 35-40 minuets. I ran it at
night and read the report in the morning. It can setup scheduled sweeps
during off times. It can choose Full, Quick or Custom sweep. It provides
16 customizable shields and auto-updates. It is Vista compatible and has
rootkit discovery capabilities.
Reviewer 2: There were surprisingly few good points by which to
distinguish Spy Sweeper. While it has an attractive and intuitive GUI
(Graphic User Interface), is highly configurable, offers several tools
including a root kit detection tool, offers multiple shields (“Smart
Shields”) to block potential spyware threats and adware in real time, uses
heuristics to help further identify spyware and adware, offers free
updates, and offers free support, so do the vast majority of not only
competing anti-spyware programs but nearly all freeware anti-spyware
programs as well. And while the true test of any anti-spyware program is
in how well it detects and removes spyware,, it performed no better (and
in some instances far worse) than competing products (see below). So while
it does offer the aforementioned good points, there are none that
separates it or distinguishes it from the majority of its competitors.
Reviewer 3: In addition to manual and scheduled system sweeps,
SpySweeper runs in the background and monitors your system for known
spyware or suspicious activity. When I visited a Web site that was
reported to contain malware, SpySweeper popped up immediately and reported
that it was blocking communication with the site. I shut down my browser
and no signs of any compromise to my system appeared. It also popped up on
another occasion to inform me that a program was attempting to make
changes to my HOSTS file (which redirects or blocks visits to specific web
pages). I appreciate that SpySweeper makes recommendations for actions but
leaves the final decision to the user When my church’s main computer had
an infection with multiple malware programs, I successfully used
SpySweeper in coordination with other programs and procedures to remove
the infections. I left SpySweeper as the main spyware monitoring program
(with a new paid license) and there has not been a reinfection. Once they
were properly configured the scheduled scans worked as programmed. You are
given a very high level of control over when and how they run. One of the
options I chose was to not run the scheduled scan if my laptop was on
battery power. I was pleased that , when the scan did not run, a
SpySweeper screen appeared notifying me of which scan did not run, why it
did not run, and giving the appropriate choices to skip the scan or to try
it again.
Reviewer 4: With the rising issues of spyware, adware etc. computer
users need tools that will help them avoid problems, and detect them when
they arise. Spy Sweeper does this. If I attempted to download a program
Spy Sweeper considered suspect, I was provided with an alert and offered
the decision to Block or Allow the installation. In light of drive-by
downloads this feature alone provides you with excellent coverage.
Scheduled sweeps take the task off your mind and manage it for you so you
needn't think of it again. Real time shields and sweeping provide no
discernible slow down in CPU times. The added benefit of rootkit sweeping,
one of the newer menaces to the computer world, is a plus. Sweeps provide
comprehensive, yet easily understood reports identify risk levels of any
problems detected and offering you quarantine or deletion options, as well
as offering a restore option should the item identified be necessary for
the operation of another program. Protection against all the current "bad
guys" is a layered process, and this is a good layer. Automatic updating
of spyware definitions and program updates is available, and can be set to
download automatically requiring no further interaction by the user.
Customer support is very responsive, all queries are assigned a ticket
number within a matter of minutes, and always within a matter of hours a
response with detailed information about resolving issues or answering
"most" questions follows.
Reviewer 5: Spy Sweeper is easy to learn and use with a
user-friendly interface within which it's convenient and logical to make
selections. It does seem to provide some level of protection against a
wide variety of spyware threats and also provides rootkit protection. The
real-time shields seem quite thorough. With only one exception
(Incredimail) did I detect any noticeable conflict or severe performance
loss to the other resident program. A somewhat unique, and to some,
valuable feature, is that different levels of protection settings that may
be used by different users, returning to those settings whenever that user
returns. Automatic updates may be scheduled and are very current, adding
daily definition updates. Help is readily available and well-written as is
the FAQ section. Direct customer support is also available.
Reviewer 6: Because of the testing that we have been doing, I
actually have several anti-spyware programs running on different computers
here. Spy Sweeper is able to live harmoniously with the others, without
provoking any conflicts or difficulties; such is not always the case. It
has a very complete set of tools to deal with most kinds of malware that
fall into this "anti-spyware" category. Note though, that it is not an
anti-virus program. I find the layout and presentation of the program to
be excellent. All the different modules and functions are easily available
to set up the program to run as desired. One of the first things I want to
do is set up the “schedules” -- when and how often to update the “threat”
database, when to sweep, how extensive you want any sweep to be, what to
do with the results of any sweep and so on. Spy Sweeper is very well
designed to make these choices easily. There are usually defaults
suggested, but you can adapt them to your own needs. It is also handy that
you can include Spy Sweeper in the context menu that you get when you
right-click on a file or folder on your drive. I have used this function a
number of times to verify that particular files were actually free from
infection. Spy Sweeper is reportedly compatible with Microsoft Vista. The
Help file is available throughout the program. If you use the F1 key, it
will open to the section in the Help file dealing with the place that you
are in the program.
Weak Points:
Reviewer1: Spysweeper it seemed to be blocking several Web sites that
I frequently use such as Weather Underground and Yahoo TV listings site. I
may have had a conflict with other programs running or popup blockers. I
turned off the BHO shield and the sites loaded. It finally settled down
and is running smoothly now with all shields on. Maybe it learned my
habits!
Reviewer 2: Here is where Spy Sweeper was able to distinguish
itself from its competitors—those being for the purpose of this review:
A-Squared Antispyware, AVG Antispyware (formerly Ewido), CounterSpy,
Microsoft Antispyware, Spy Doctor, and Zero Spyware. Spy Sweeper left the
largest footprint and highest usage of RAM and CPU than any other
program—its scanning resulted in 100% CPU usage on even my very powerful
platform, it’s scanning times were the slowest, it scanned the fewest
files, used Windows Task Scheduler rather than its own, offered the fewest
configuration options, the least number of additional tools, the real time
shields work on with Internet Explorer so your computer is not protected
if using Firefox or Opera for example, and has the smallest signature file
database of any other similar product I have seen. (Its current signature
file is at or around 150,000 signatures as compared to AVG Antispyware’s
signature database of 728,000!). Most important in an antispyware program
is how well it detects and removes spyware and here Spy Sweeper failed to
outperform the others. I purposely infected my machine with a host of
spyware programs. Spy Sweeper identified and deleted an undistinguished
77.8%. The other applications tested ranged from a low of 84.3% (Spyware
Doctor) to a high of 97.2% (AVG Antispyware). In real time protection the
results were even more striking. In visiting sites known to be full of
spyware, Spy Sweeper stopped only a disappointing 81.7% while the others
stopped or caught a low of 74.8% (Spyware Doctor) and a high of 91.6%
(CounterSpy). In addition, it installs three applications in your
autostart folder and these three programs run continuously as services.
Even if you try to disable Spy Sweeper completely you will find one
service that you can not kill even through using Task Manager. To kill
this service you have to reboot into safe mode and kill the service from
there. The program is nearly impossible to totally disable and even more
impossible to uninstall. After installing this program it left an
astonishing 106 orphaned registry entries and 9 separate files! As for
specific problems that occurred while testing this program over a four
month period, I continually received both “runtime errors” and “external
exception” errors; scans would occasional stop at about half way through
my files and then start repeating the scan; the scan would show an
estimated time remaining of 14 minutes and then scan for an additional 42
minutes only to then stop scanning at about three-quarters of the way
through my files and freeze up; regardless of its claim and the
configuration I chose, it does not scan restore points fully; it took
forever to load; would bring my powerful computer to a crawl when scanning
and noticeably slower just running in background; and would occasionally
freeze up my computer for no discernible reason. So what did technical
support have to say? Very little. In fact, this may be the most pathetic
support I have ever encountered. It would sometimes take four or five
attempts to get support to respond and then their two standard responses
were to remove and reinstall the program or make sure you have the latest
Windows Update followed by (if those two suggestions didn’t work), and I
am paraphrasing here, it must be your machine. In short, aside from the
FAQ’s and an admittedly extensive knowledge base, support is
worthless—that is when you can get them to respond at all. Spy Sweeper is
also distinguished by the fact that neither of the two most respected
security industry’s certification labs, ICSA
www.icsalabs.com
or VB 100
www.birusbtn.com have certified Spy Sweeper beginning with v.5.0
.
Reviewer 3: On my system, the schedule task wizard ran and the
scheduled scan appeared to be configured and displayed properly, but the
task was scheduled to run “never”. This was a listed topic on the
troubleshooting section of their Web site and I followed their
recommendations to make changes through Windows Scheduler and then to make
the same scheduled sweep in SpySweeper. This resulted in the task being
scheduled but was a bit of an awkward workaround.
Reviewer 4: As mentioned above, Spy Sweeper only found one suspect cookie
in all the sweeps I performed. Using Counterspy to scan my computer
resulted in finding four Trojan and three tracking cookies. I ran a Spy
Sweeper scan before removing any of these objects from my system and they
went unnoticed by Spy Sweeper. As part of the GUI (Graphic User Interface)
found in the "About Shields" and "About Sweeps" links Spy Sweeper makes
the following statement, "Full Sweep is the most thorough sweep, and is
recommended for keeping your computer free of potentially unwanted
programs and viruses. Quick Sweep will sweep your computer a lot faster,
but is not as secure as a Full Sweep. Custom Sweep lets you select where
and how Spy Sweeper searches for potentially unwanted programs and
viruses. The Version of Spy Sweeper tested by the NNT review panel does
not include Virus sweeping or protection which must be purchased as an
upgrade. This GUI can be misleading to the user thinking they have virus
sweeping capabilities they do not have. In the Shields portion of Spy
Sweeper there is an icon "Virus Shield ON", yet no where is this shield
accessible, and clicking on the icon does nothing. I queried Customer
Support directly about these issues, explaining in my email that I did not
have the anti-virus upgrade. I received an interesting response that did
not answer the question that I asked. They simply told me how to identify
whether or not I had the anti-virus upgrade by looking to see if those
items are grayed out in my edition. There was no explanation as to why
they include the virus removal and virus shield ON, GUI in this version of
Spy Sweeper. During set up of Spy Sweeper I engaged all 15 shields of
protection. Immediately after doing so, I went online with IE7 to do some
surfing. This change in my configuration was the only recent change in
quite some period of time. When I shut down IE7 my laptop monitor also
shut down. I couldn't reengage my monitor by any means other than a cold
restart. I considered perhaps some kind of conflict with the real time
protection of Spyware Doctor, another tool I utilize, as I was also
running On Guard. I turned On Guard off, and did some more browsing. The
same problem existed with, no pattern in browsing history. I am still
considering some possible conflict with Spyware Doctor, I uninstalled it.
I went back online with IE7, and experienced the same issue. I turned off
all the real time shields in Spy Sweeper and the problem did not recur. I
queried Customer Support regarding this problem, and they advised me to
sweep my system clean of Spy Sweeper utilizing a link to a tool they
provided, restart my computer and reinstall Spy Sweeper once again. I
didn't do this because I wanted to test the shields to see if I could find
the problem. I did test the shields individually and in tandem. I can
neither verify nor rule out the fact that the Shields caused this problem.
It may have been a conflict with the Trojans found by CounterSpy or simply
a result of them. It just happened to occur immediately after I installed
Spy Sweeper and turned the Shields on. One month after having a fully
registered and licensed version of Spy Sweeper I was alerted that I needed
to provide my registration information. I was given no reason for this
request.
Reviewer 5: Although the program purports to offer a wide array of
protection mechanisms for a wide array of threats, it does not seem do a
very thorough job, being no more effective in my tests than a combination
of adaware and spybot, both free programs. At several sessions I first ran
Spy Sweeper, followed by the freeware programs, on one occasion I found
one cookie which it had missed but the freeware caught. I then reversed
the process with the freeware going first, then Spy Sweeper and also added
a competitor, Counterspy, to the mix. The freeware picked up its stuff,
then Spy Sweeper found nothing additional that might have been missed by
the freeware, and then, Counterspy would find one or several additional
cookies as well as the occasional Trojan, even a keylogger. I tried a
final series of tests, with CounterSpy leading the way, followed by Spy
Sweeper. On no occasion did it find anything left over after CounterSpy
had been run. To me, even though the testing was limited to three runs per
test, this, to me, is very telling. In fact, during my multi-week testing
period as well the 10-month period since my original purchase, Spy Sweeper
has, to my recollection, not found anything other than benign cookies,
they themselves describing them as “low-threat” even though I occasionally
get adventuresome in my browsing activities. Also, the sensitive real-time
detection became annoying repeatedly announcing alarm over every harmless
cookie which came its way. I now depend on periodic sweeps to detect for
potential threats, then follow up with another program for additional
protection. When asked to determine what to do with the detected threats,
there does not appear a way to chose different treatments for different
threats, the selected treatment applied to all. As an example, if you
choose to quarantine them, you must then go to the quarantined file to
delete specific ones. Updates, if performed while you are active on the
computer, slow other operations considerably. I have a relatively fast
processor (2.8 GB), yet my other operations slow to a crawl, with Spy
Sweeper absorbing 67% of my processing power during updates. This can be
slightly annoying at best and downright nasty if you're caught in the
middle of an online game or if your system is overpowered to the point of
freezing altogether. I recommend you do your updates and even sweeps at
down times (overnight?) if you don't mind leaving your computer on. Even
during regular monitoring operation, Spy Sweeper also slows your system,
but only mildly – except for those using Incredimail, as I do. When a
letter is sent, it now takes 20 seconds to as much as 60+ seconds before
my letter is actually transmitted. In the meantime, all other operations
cease. It is only my presumption that this is caused by the Spy Sweeper
inspection of my outgoing contents, but know for sure that everything
returns to normal after it is uninstalled. Although support is readily
available and a robot-generated trouble ticket is provided almost
immediately, I found prompt and responsive answers to be more elusive: I
have been waiting for an answer about the Incredimail conflict for more
than three weeks. On another simple-to-answer settings question, I was
given an answer as if directly from the FAQ. Unfortunately the answer was
not germane to my question. My followup to that has not yet been answered.
In fairness, two other mundane queries were answered within 48 hours. I
think it only reasonable that a paid program provider be more responsive
to the needs of its customer. Uninstalls were not clean and left debris
behind, that had to be removed manually.
Reviewer 6: I was very pleased that Spy Sweeper was able to
identify and remove a particularly nasty and very tenuous set of spyware
programs that had installed themselves on one of the computers here.
However, they got themselves in there on Spy Sweeper's watch: they had
successfully gotten through the Shields set up by Spy Sweeper. Spy Sweeper
was not successful in actually protecting it from the original infection.
On the computers that I use regularly, I find Spy Sweeper to be far too
“present.” It often pops up, announcing potential or perceived dangers. I
begin to find myself just clicking on “ignore” or “allow” or “go away,
don't bother me” without paying particular attention to the warnings. Each
time I install a new program, it leaps up with warnings that the
installation is trying to place itself in one place or another. This is to
let an unwary user know if the program is perhaps putting something into a
location in a secret fashion, that will later run as a Trojan, adware or
keylogger, unknown to the user. However, I find that, since I am
installing a program, I just click yes since Spy Sweeper is not telling me
anything very helpful. It also is very active at boot-up time, consuming
large amounts of computer resources, and adding quite a lot of time to the
boot-up process. It also seems to be unwilling to get out of the way when
it is time to shut-down the computer, often slowing down that process as
well.
Other Comments:
Reviewer 1: It missed a keylogger that another program, CounterSpy,
caught. I guess there is no “perfect” program out there and this one works
fairly well. It just takes a little tweaking to get it to be functional
but “invisible” or transparent. Spysweeper seems to have a light touch and
did not heavily impact my system resources but still did a good job of
keeping the bad guys out.
Reviewer 2: One note of clarification: It is true that if you look
through almost all of the major computer publications or read the most
well known computer newsletters, you will find Spy Sweeper being given
only the highest praise and consistently voted “Best or “#1.” Of course,
you will also see an advertisement—usually on the very same page as these
reviews. Is there a connection? I will let you decide. But before you do,
look to some reviews of actual users such as can be found on Amazon at
www.amazon.com/Webroot-Spy-Sweeper-Antispyware-5-x/dp/customer-reviews/B000B6N2O4
or Spy Sweeper reviews at
http://ask.50webs.com/spy-sweeper-reviews.html or the 53 user
reviews on Cnet’s Download.com at
www.download.com/Webroot-Spy-Sweeper-with-AntiVirus/3640-8022_4-10635526.html?tag=tab_ur
and after reading through the thirty or 40 or so pages of almost totally
negative reviews then you can decide who’s being honest and ethical.
Reviewer 3: No single anti-spyware will catch every instance of
every version of spyware. Therefore, it is generally recommended that you
have two or more anti-spyware programs on your system. However, you should
run them at different times so they do not conflict with each other. Of
all of the anti-spyware programs I have tried, SpySweeper would be high on
my recommended list.
Reviewer 4: Computer protection in today's world cannot be ignored,
nor do I believe it can be managed by one tool alone. No tool catches
everything, but several used in tandem are far more likely to be
successful. This program is an affordable option at $30. It is easily
utilized by the most novice computer user, which I think is an important
asset.
Reviewer 5: While a “full sweep” is labeled as the most thorough,
it appears to leave out the restore folder and rootkits. Only by using the
“custom sweep” can these be added. Windows diskcheck finds many incorrect
entries attributable to Spy Sweeper and “corrects” them. It appears the
latest Spy Sweeper version may be the last. Upon going to the developer's
home page I found a 5.3 version available, but that is their product that
is combined with an antivirus, not the program we tested. Individual
settings for individual users is attractive, since personal folders/files
will be protected to order. But how about those things that can be
infected which are used in common? Are they only protected to the level of
the “weakest” protection settings among the users? Spy Sweeper appears to
be a reliable antispyware program but it just seems that it has not
recently kept up with the competition. The comparative performance now
seems very ordinary, with superior programs available at an equal or
lesser subscription price. I relied on it, with no harmful results for
nearly a year, until I compared it to its peers and find it currently
falling short.
Reviewer 6: I came across Webroot a number of years ago -- actually
before the spyware era began (although unfortunately virus programs were
an early menace on the Internet.) So the Webroot people have been in the
“protect you on the Internet” business longer than most of the others.
Although Spy Sweeper has been recommended by some of the more well-known
magazines, ezines, web-sites, bloggers and so forth, I had not actually
used it previously. Quite honestly, I find many of them to be intrusive,
constantly popping up to tell you to beware of this and watch out for
that, and so on. I get the impression that they are really trying to
oversell themselves, making themselves to be more important than they
really are. They are particularly annoying when reporting cookies, which,
most of the time, are relatively harmless, and sometimes very useful. To
me, this over-reporting of potential dangers has the opposite effect of
taking threats seriously; they cry wolf too often. Spy Sweeper falls into
this category of anti-malware.
Will You Continue To Use It?
Reviewer 1: I will keep it and fire it up after testing
several others. Too many of this type running and it muddies the water.
You cannot be sure which is doing the job.
Reviewer 2: No.
Reviewer 3: Yes.
Reviewer 4: Yes, along with the rest of my arsenal.
Reviewer 5: Yes, but only because I am subscribed for another 14
months and because I'm curious where the program is going. One additional
alternate program to detect spyware cannot hurt. It will no longer be my
primary antispyware resource; instead. I will use it only as an
additional, occasional “sweeper”. If/when improvements are made, I'll take
another look.
Reviewer 6: No. Not on my main work computer, although I will
probably leave it on the other backup machine.
Webroot, producers of
SpySweeper, was asked to comment on this review but declined to do so.
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home, XP Media Center Edition
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