ZERO SPYWARE 2005
What’s it do?
ZeroSpyware 2005 identifies and removes all kinds of spyware and malware.
Boasting one of the largest and most actively updated spyware definition
databases in the market, ZeroSpyware automatically monitors active
processes to stop spyware attacks the moment they occur.
Does it do what it promises?
Reviewer 1: When you first install it, you are prompted to register
the program and then it asks if you want to let ZeroSpyware use its
default settings or, if you are adventurous, you can configure it
yourself. On my system I have multiple hard drives and the program
automatically found them and started a deep scan of their contents. After
the full system scan, the main System status page was displayed and it
showed no spyware found, nothing quarantined, etc. My system was clean
except for Greywear. The program did identify one installed application
called MyWebSearch and it has identified this as either potentially
harmful, unnecessary or unwanted. At this point, it is prompting me to
quarantine it, ignore it for now or to always allow. What other spyware
scanner gives you this type of option? Weekly, the spyware databases get
updated. This is mandatory in today’s world as spyware is not as
destructive upfront as a virus may be, but it can help to steal your
identify, advertise to the world what applications you have and are
running, and a whole list of things you just as well want kept private.
Reviewer 2: For me, it did not. After installation, my system was
crippled to the point that I could not open Windows Explorer. Too many
false alerts to legitimate programs compromised my confidence in the
other, perhaps true, reports of spyware activity on my computer.
FBM Software responded: Real-time alerts can
be configured under General Settings to “Always allow” legitimate
programs.
Reviewer 3: Yes, and more.
Reviewer 4: Yes.
Reviewer 5: Yes, it seems to. It's a collection of tools to manage
your system, and to detect and respond to malware. The user interface is
consistent throughout the application, and for the most part it's fairly
easy to navigate to the tool you want. ZeroSpyware offers a user-friendly,
simple, automatic tool to users who are not very familiar with the inner
workings of Windows, and also provides a powerful set of tools to users
who want to 'get their hands dirty' mucking about in the Registry and
Windows Processes.
Reviewer 6: Spyware, and its associated evils, has become
particularly nasty in the quite recent past. From its beginnings as
irritating advertising in several forms, it has evolved into ways that
people with criminal intent can steal private and confidential information
about you from your computer. Anti-spyware programs have become as
critical to people using networked communications as anti-virus, and
firewall software. ZeroSpyware has a range of tools to combat spyware in
all its forms. Some operate in the background, on a continuous basis, to
keep these programs from infecting your computer. Some, such as a Scan of
your computer, can be run manually, or scheduled to run at certain times.
Others pop up with warnings when you or your computer start an activity
which could lead to an infection of one kind of another. For example, a
program may want to install itself in the startup of your computer. You
may want this to happen, in which case, you allow it. Or, if you don’t
want it there, or if you do not know what it is, you can block that
action. Over the past several weeks, I have found ZeroSpyware to perform
all these tasks very well indeed.
Reviewer 7: It claims to "Eliminate Spyware Permanently" and "Block
Spyware Attacks". What's new in ZeroSpyware2005 says is: Remote Restore:
Immediate 24/7 access through the application to spyware specialists to
assist in interactive troubleshooting, diagnostics, and repair services;
Vulnerability Assessment: Protect against future spyware infection by
identifying and
updating exploits and vulnerabilities in operating system files and other
trusted applications; Intrusion Detection System: Prevents unwanted
applications from infecting your computer
and modifying your browser by controlling access to sensitive system
areas; Automated Discovery: Uncovers potential threats and zero-day
spyware to provide early protection and reassurance in the face of rapidly
evolving spyware. it explicitly does NOT "Eliminate Spyware Permanently",
only Quarantines it if/when found, and if indeed it can "Block Spyware
Attacks" I saw nothing during my testing to convince me that such a
all-encompassing blanket claim were anything other than marketing hype.
While off to a good start in the right direction(s) -- particularly the
24/7 Support provided -- I found ZeroSpyware2005 quality acceptable for
beta pre-release testing, but well short of full Product Release quality,
or anything I'd recommend to a customer at this point. Specifically, with
respect to its claims: "Remote Restore": Excellent Remote Service/Support
24/7, but definitely NO Remote restore; "Vulnerability Assessment": Yes,
but first I had to manually kill it off to keep it from interfering with
its own Spyware Scan, then after rescheduling 12hrs later, it never
started up, and finally I had to manually start it. The results produced
were interesting but for me not useful, although they might well be for
less-experienced users. However, it would have to be much better tested
and working solidly beforehand; "Intrusion Detection System": Maybe so -
it did work well against an injected test-virus - but I never observed any
intercepts with it operating in-the-wild over a week-long testing period;
"Automated Discovery uncovers potential threats and zero-day spyware to
provide early protection and reassurance in the face of rapidly evolving
spyware." If anyone can define this in concrete, specific terms -- even
better via a good example, please let me know -- I haven't the faintest
idea what it means.
FBM Software responded This is a known bug. We
will be including the fix to this on the patch update for release this
fourth quarter.
Was it easy to install?
Reviewer 1: It was very easy to install. Select the installation
application, the program installs itself, you are then prompted to let it
configure itself or to perform a manual configuration. Everything was
fluid and straight forward. You do not need to be a computer expert to
install and configure ZeroSpyware.
Reviewer 2: Installation was simple. I chose the custom setup over the
automatic, but kept all of the default settings by choice. There was a
nice summary description of each feature. It would be nice to have a
second, more detailed description level available. ZeroSpyware2005’s
License Agreement contains an intrusive element that I have not seen
before. It reads: “You agree that FBM Software may audit your use of the
Software for compliance with the EULA at any time, upon reasonable
notice.”
Reviewer 3: Yes. While it is a sizeable (12.04MB) program, it
downloaded quickly and installs using a very easy to follow installation
wizard which offers either a default or customized installation. One note,
however, it is necessary to have your IE browser web settings at default
to download and install. See below.
Reviewer 4: Yes.
Reviewer 5: Yes, painless.
Reviewer 6: Yes it was. I was able to put the program where I wanted
to, and determine the placement of icons, etc. You will be asked if you
wish it to run at startup (recommended). You are asked for your
registration key, and can put it in now, or later. I allowed it to
“Auto-Config”, because you can change any of your settings once you get to
know the program.
Reviewer 7: Yes, a quick and easy install, with only its
install-location requested. A Copy/Paste of its Registration Key worked
conveniently, and few changes to ZeroSpyware's Default Settings were
required to be off & running. Its EULA was conveniently copyable for
offline review and saving prior to agreement One clause of its EULA I find
impractical and overly restrictive: “This EULA allows you to: Install and
use the Software on a single computer… A single license for the Software
may not be shared or used concurrently on different computers." Virtually
everyone today has multiple home/office/laptop computers, on all of which
I strongly believe, and most forward-thinking software providers agree,
should be allowed serial/Nonconcurrent use. I don't understand the
usefulness of making rules you cannot police. To me another weasel-worded,
user-offending EULA clause is: Limited warranty. FBM software warrants
that when used with a recommended hardware configuration, the Software
will perform in substantial conformance with the documentation supplied
with the Software...." What substantial conformance and what
documentation?
FBM Software responded: We are reviewing the EULA
and will be introducing a new one later this year.
Good points
Reviewer 1: When the program starts, you are shown a well designed
“Front End”. This screen displays the current scan status, schedule of
scans, Spyware immunization status, the expiry date along with a Real-Time
Protection area where you can view what has been detected and quarantined
and what the system has detected as “Greywear”. It’s easy to select
different configuration areas from this front page. I installed the
program, the spyware signatures were automatically updated and then a full
system scan was performed. There was nothing on my system except an item
described as “Greywear”. Because I am familiar with the application, I
chose to allow this to pass the inspection in the future. I immediately
ran Microsoft Antispyware and it found nothing either, not even the
aforementioned Greywear. One more checkmark for ZeroSpyware. There is an
option called Automated Discovery. This field will be populated unknown
processes, what the program cannot identify. If you click on any of the
unknown processes, a detailed map is drawn shown file version, file name,
manufacturer and the file path. Again, the program is very robust. It will
now let you do one of 3 things: End the process, if you are comfortable to
do this; suspend temporarily, if you are not sure what this process is
doing; or,- send specimen spyware to Spyware-net, and let the experts at
FMB software analyze it. If you are not sure of the unknown application,
you can click on a button called “Google It” and Google will open and
search for all occurrences of it. Venerable scan is a process that will
actually search your system for any outdated security patches and other
security risks on your system, a very nice feature to have. It will check
versions of all vulnerable OS files, browsers, and other supported
applications to see if they are updated. After the scan, all detected
vulnerabilities are listed, and links to their respective program's
updates are available right within ZeroSpyware.
Reviewer 2: This program has a very pretty interface.
Reviewer 3: This is truly an excellent program with very little, if
anything, of real importance not to like. Besides its attractive GUI and
numerous features, it is without question the finest and most through
antispyware application on the market. It leaves a very small footprint on
your system and its use of memory and CPU usage is lower than all other
similar applications. (When performing a full scan and/or updating it was
using less than 16% of my CPU.) As to its performance, having recently in
an NNT review, highly recommended and touted Sunbelt’s CounterSpy, I was
prepared to give FBM Software’s ZeroSpyware2005 a very thorough and, I
might add, rugged testing which I did for well over 60 days. In all
categories it not only exceeded my expectations but handily beat all of
its competitors. I tested ZeroSpyware 2005 against the four most popular
and highest rated antispyware programs currently on the market: Microsoft
Antispyware Beta, CounterSpy, SpySweeper, and Spyware Doctor. In every
comparison, SpywareZero 2005 beat the competition. On my machine,
ZeroSpyware 2005 scanned 3,183 more files that either of the other
programs mentioned and its scanning speed (full scan) was a little over 12
minutes while Microsoft’s program took thirty seven minutes, SpySweeper
took 16 minutes, Spyware Doctor at 24 minutes, and CounterSpy nineteen
minutes. Speed and thoroughness, however, is not necessarily what we want
most from an antispyware application. What we want is a program that finds
and deletes all of the spyware, and in this ZeroSpyware 2005 also
excelled. First, it found four pieces of spyware on my computer ranging
from medium to high risk: eZula—a notoriously difficult program to rid
from a pc, PC Tattle Tale (keylogger), BonziBuddy (adware), and IST Bar—a
high risk browser hijacker. None of the aforementioned programs found any
of these. (By the way, neither did the very popular Adaware or Spybot!)
Next, I purposely infected my machine with a host of spyware programs.
ZeroSpyware 2005 identified and deleted an unprecedented and outstanding
99.1%. The other applications tested ranged from a low of 84.3% (Spyware
Doctor) to a high of 92.7% (CounterSpy). In real time protection the
results were even more striking. In visiting sites known to be full of
spyware, ZeroSpyware 2005 stopped 100% while the others stopped or caught
a low of 74.8% (Spyware Doctor) and a high of 87.6% (CounterSpy). These
figures alone should cause one to immediately purchase and download
ZeroSpyware 2005, but there is even more offered by this program—some of
which is unique to this program. First and foremost, ZeroSpyware 2005
offers what it calls a “Vulnerability Scan.” What this does is it checks
your machine for needed patches and/or updates to your OS and programs,
and once identified, connects you to the proper source to download the
updates and patches. In short, this is a patch management tool which is
generally very expensive and normally only available to businesses running
servers. Now, I keep my machine fully updated and patched (or so I
thought!), but ZeroSpyware 2005 found 34 updates or needed patches for my
machine. This one feature alone is worth three times the price of the
entire program! There is, however, even more offered. There is a cool
management tool, a browser plug-in management tool, a system lock
function, a browser lock function, and a process explorer that not only
lists running processes but fully describes them and the application
running them—even some of those hidden .dll processes that do not show up
in Task manager! Additionally, there are options to report spyware to
ZeroSpyware 2005 for further identification; there is the option to
delete, quarantine, or allow what is found; there is a distinction made
between known spyware and what ZeroSpyware 2005 calls “grayware” (possible
but unknown spyware); and there is a full scheduling tool to allow for
automatic scanning as well as automatic updating. And yes, there are still
more tools and functions available but I would think just those that I
have mentioned should more than convince you that this is the program to
have. Period! Finally, I need to make mention of support for this product.
I have been playing with software for over twenty years and I have never
encountered a company whose customer support is equal or even close to
what you receive from FBMSoftware and its ZeroSpyware 2005. First of all
there is a 24 hour live chat line available in addition to email and
telephone support. I had several questions and one slight difficulty that
was unique to my computer (not the software). In each instance (and I did
not identify myself as a professional reviewer!), not only was the live
chat nearly instant with waiting time less than 30 seconds, but the help
was fast, accurate, knowledgeable, professional, and courteous. Not only
do the customer support technicians know their product inside and out—and
trust me this is more of a rarity than you may realize—but they also
seemed just as knowledgeable about your Operating System and specific
computer. They also ask (nearly insist) that you stay online with them
while you try the solutions or answers offered to be sure that your
problem is solved or question answered. Again, this is the most
exceptional customer support I have ever encountered!
Reviewer 4: First off it worked. On its initial scan of my system,
it found 35 registry entries that had gone undetected with my other
spyware software. The entries were probably remnants from previous
cleanings, but it did find and get rid of them. I also really liked the
interface. The menu items were labeled with text as well as an icon and
they were easy to understand – with the exception of the Remote Restore
menu item. I believe this could have had a better label to explain itself.
The interface also does a pretty good job at explaining what is going on.
The software also has an ability to allow you to chat with a live person
to help you clean up problem software. Clicking on this option starts up a
chat utility, very useful if you have only one phone connection for the
Internet. It also includes intrusion detection which allows you to lock
down IE as well as the registry and the INI files. Scans can be scheduled
so they can occur at night when your system isn’t being used.
Reviewer 5: Zero Spyware scans your system for known spyware, and
if found it offers to remove it for you. It scans all running processes,
Cookies, your Registry, and your files. It has resident elements
(“Real-Time Protection” and “Spyware Prevention”) that watch continuously
for attempts to change the Registry. The Browser Lock protects against
changes to your Home Page, Search Page, and Favorites, and offers cleaning
of your History, Cookies, and Cache, as well as blocking Cookies and
Auto-Complete. The System Lock protects against changes to your HOSTS
file, your .INI file, Startups, the Winsock LSP (Layered Service Provider)
chain, and Windows Messenger. If you select a found item, you're provided
with useful options such as copying the item detail to the Clipboard,
locating the folder containing the item, and Googling the item. The latter
option is extremely helpful, since most systems will have many processes
running which are not listed in the Zero Spyware database. Besides the
system scan, which can be set up as a scheduled task, it also offers a
Vulnerability Scan which points out any critical updates for Windows or
for your applications that you've missed. (Since I have yet to install
SP2, it found 36 OS vulnerabilities!) ZeroSpyware updates can be performed
automatically, and scans can be scheduled to run at any time. In every
area (Spyware Scan, Real-Time Protection, and Spyware Prevention) there
are a myriad of tools to examine and manage every item found. The user
interface is very nice and consistent throughout; the tools cover many
aspects of Malware Management; it offers many features to help you analyze
and respond to the results.
Reviewer 6: First, users must feel comfortable, and not
overwhelmed. This is particularly important when they are starting, and
especially if it is an area of computing that is new to them. I found the
interface of ZeroSpyware to be easy to understand even for a novice in the
anti-spyware domain. The main modules of the program have large buttons
across the top of the screen, and clicking on any one of them opens that
particular function. Within these windows, your choices and options are
clearly laid out, and well-labeled. In many cases, there is a little blue
“?” which will pop up an explanation when your mouse passes over it. Next,
I found this program was able to identify spyware or other kinds of
“malware” that had been missed by several other programs that I have used
in the past year or so. In one case, it was advertising embedded in a
program that I have used for a number of years, and it was correctly
labeled “Grayware”. I told ZeroSpyware to ignore that particular program
in future scans, and so it does – but it continues to note its presence.
In other cases, it included a couple of really dangerous “keyloggers” that
ZeroSpyware put into quarantine on its own, and which I confirmed once I
had read the report. Another feature that I like is under the Spyware
Prevention button. You can (and should) schedule this activity, but also
run one manually. ZeroSpyware will go through all your system looking for
“outdated security patches”. These are possible breaches in your defensive
system where spyware could get in to infect your computer. Once you have
done the scan, you will be presented with a list of the programs (such as
the Windows Help system, Excel, Adobe, etc) that have weaknesses. The
weakness is explained, and you have the opportunity to download the
required update immediately. There are quite a few other features to
mention, but one I didn’t see right away is called “System Management” in
the Real-Time Protection button. This is a list of all (and I mean “all”)
the stuff running on your computer. You can look at each one, and if you
highlight it, ZeroSpyware pops up a little description of that particular
program or service. If you want, you can “Google” it right there, and find
out more information on the Internet. If none of this helps, you can send
a report to ZeroSpyware, and they will research it for you, and report
back with the information they find on it.
Reviewer 7: "Extreme Support" live chat with Support Team or
Knowledge Base Access availability 24/7 was by far the most outstanding
feature of this product, something they obviously take great pride in. I
found them quickly accessible (well under a minute), friendly, and
helpful. They promptly led me thru the maze to find run times, which was 3
or 4 levels deep (and should definitely be much closer to the main
screen). advice to reboot failed to resolve the repeated finding of Stop
Sign adware day after day, even though it had been deleted each time
found. Another Success: an 'Unknown BHO', VAPopupKiller.dll v.2.5.0.32
from Webroot Software, reported by ZeroSpyware on the 5th day of testing
was referred to Spyware-Net, after a lot of nitpicking heartburn in
filling out their Problem Report form online("Line 1: Incorrect syntax
near 's'." about a problem-reporting webpage with multiple cells, most
with multiple unnumbered lines). However, Spyware-Net successfully
analyzed & responded cogently in 36hrs during the weekend. Content
coverage and presentation of Help-File Documentation was attractively and
creatively done. However, there was no way to print it out for
reading/study -- in my opinion a major deficiency that could (and should)
be easily rectified. FBM Software responded:
We will be uploading a printable version of the Help file on our Website.
We are also planning to include a built-in Help file in later build
releases. In most ways I found the User-Interface well
thought-out, well-implemented, and easy to use -- in particular its
screen-to-screen layout & navigation. Unfortunately the individual screen
layout & content often left a lot to be desired -- for instance the
SpywarePrevention | VulnerabilityAssessment_ScheduledScan_ChangeSchedule
produces a series of three consecutive screens:
Frequency_Daily/Weekly/Monthly | Day_of_Week | Time_of_Day -- something
much more conveniently covered in a single screen. Its price of $29.95/yr
is in line with SpySweeper(Webroot) and Ewido, but substantially higher
than the current best-of-class: CounterSpy, which sells for $19.95/yr.
Weak points
Reviewer 1: During a scan of my system, I have a number of
applications active and I did notice an appreciable slowdown to both mouse
and keyboard commands as the scan was being performed. Also, the
recalculations of my spreadsheets was very slow. I’ll perform a scan
during off hours next time. I uninstalled the application and ran a scan
on my registry and there were may remnants of the program left behind. I
reinstalled the program, the registry entries were updated and the program
was once again fully functional.
Reviewer 2: After installing ZeroSpyware2005 I found that I could not
open Windows Explorer. A crash alert message would appear when I attempted
to open it and after that a crash alert for Doctor Watson would appear.
The first time I ran a scan, ZeroSpyware2005 detected possible spyware. An
“Alert Manager” window popped up with a Browser Plug-in Alert. There was a
fair amount of information available within the sub-levels of the window
but I would recommend that the publisher highlight the tabs to make them
more obvious. The recommendations included “googling” but no link was
provided and the text in the window was not able to be highlighted or
copied. This made “googling” inconvenient in that the information had to
be entered by hand. I would also recommend that they make this
AlertManager window larger so all of the details can be displayed at a
glance. It turned out that the reported manufacturer on my alert,
“"Identity TheftBlocker", brought up no hits on Google and only one
irrelevant hit with the multi-search engine, Copernic Agent. However,
scrolling down in the sub-menu revealed the rest of the details including
the filename “antphishing.dll”and the filepath
“c:\programfiles\antiphishing which told me that this was a program I had
intentionally installed on my system. All of the information was there, it
just was not as easy to evaluate as if it was displayed out in the open.
There is a very nice feature on the alert manager window, “Contact 24/7
Remote Restore”. Clicking on it connects you to a live “operator” who you
communicate via text chat. I contacted them about the above alert and
typed in the original alert and asked for recommendations. He replied “I
suggest that you choose Block. I suggested this because I checked Google
and haven’t found any information regarding that file.” He did not ask for
the filename or path which are the critical clues leading to the
conclusion that this alert was flagging a legitimate program. On startup,
the ZeroSpyware2005 found MCUpdate.exe as a startup event intrusion.
MCUpdate.exe is the executable that controls the automatic update feature
of McAfee antivirus. Such a common program should automatically be
evaluated and “white listed”. If you disabled, it you would be disabling
your ability to update your antivirus program and its definitions. This
would leave your system vulnerable to new viruses. “18 Unknown Processes”
were reported under the “Real-time Protection Automated Discovery”
section.. The good news was that there was enough information displayed
for me to determine that these were all from legitimate programs that I
had installed on my system. Unfortunately, it took time to determine this
and this level of false alerts makes me suspicious of other alerts which
may in fact be real. In the System Status screen, there’s a section of
Spyware Immunization. I clicked on “Disable Immunization” and saw a window
which said that deactivation immunization would leave my system more
vulnerable to spyware installers. Click OK to continue. So I clicked on
the only other choice, the “X” in the upper right corner to close the
window. When I returned to the System Status window, I found that
immunization had been disabled anyway.
Reviewer 3: As far as this reviewer is concerned there really are NO
SERIOUS WEAKNESSES IN THIS PROGRAM. That is not to say that, as with any
new program, there are not some minor glitches and areas for improvement,
and while I normally do not address myself to making suggestions for
improvements, this program is so exceptional and the developers so
interested in your feedback that I will do so in this instance. First, I
think the problem with needing to reset the IE web setting to the default
setting is something that should be addressed, and in the very least
mentioned in the installation process as some people (and ISP’s) customize
these settings. (I should note here, however, that the program does
download and install with absolutely no glitches using either Firefox or
Opera. Secondly, while there is the aforementioned excellent customer
support and a link to a FAQ page on the Website, because there is so much
offered in this program a help file would, I think, be of great benefit to
the new user. Third, I think it would be a bit more convenient to simply
be able to close the full screen without needing to right-click the system
tray icon to minimize. If you click on the X in the top right hand corner
of the screen—which in nearly all applications closes the screen—you get a
pop up box that asks if you want to shut down the program. If you click
“no,” the screen closes. This seems a bit cumbersome. Finally, when you
click for additional information on the found “vulnerabilities” to further
identify the updates or patches needed, the popup screen opens to the far
right of the main screen and is partially hidden until you drag it towards
the left. To repeat, however, these are not serious problems and have
nothing or little to do with the program’s abilities or functions.
Reviewer 4: I was a little disappointed with the speed of the scans.
This is not something you would want to do while you were trying to do
other work. It took over 1.5 hours to do a vulnerability scan.
Reviewer 5: When you select a vulnerability, a detail window includes
a link to a URL to download the update/patch. Unfortunately, selecting the
link just brings up a window suggesting that all applications (including
Zero Spyware) be shut down; 'OK' just closes the window my browser does
not open to the URL, the URL is not displayed, and the URL is not sent to
the Clipboard. Good concept, but it didn't work for me! Running daily
scans for nearly two months, it never reported any spyware found on my
system! (See Other Comments for a probable explanation for this!) The
Vulnerability Scan is an exceptionally useful tool, but the option to
download updates/patches does not work, at least on my system.
Reviewer 6. I have only a minor complaint. When ZeroSpyware starts
running an update or begins some other scheduled activity, an announcement
pops up from the system tray. I was not able to find a way to minimize
this message. I am thankful for the info, but sometimes need that screen
space at that particular time. For now, I just have to leave it running,
taking up that bottom corner of the screen.
Reviewer 7: On more substantial problems the support effectiveness
sagged significantly: against a promised "24-48 hour turnaround time,
including weekends and holidays" it is now five days after reporting a
major problem (Vulnerability Scan starting up repeatedly and at an
incorrect time), FBM Software responded : A
fix for this is currently being developed. It will also be included in the
patch update later this year and I have yet to hear
anything back from "2nd-Level Support" to whom it was referred. And the
suggested workaround: "change the time and see if that won't fix" did not
correct the problem.. Also, their advice to reboot failed to resolve the
repeated finding of Stop Sign adware day after day, even though it had
been deleted each time found. Support’s advice to reboot failed to resolve
the repeated finding of Stop Sign adware day after day, even though it had
been deleted each time found. Each of six ZeroSpyware scans over a
weeklong period, each scanning 1.4 million files, each taking a median
runtime of 6 hours 17minutes, identified only one Adware file: on every
run. It (re)found StopSign (Medium Threat-Level), despite the fact that it
had been manually deleted after every identification, but interestingly,
ZeroSpyware was the only program of thoseI run that identified StopSign.
Also, it successfully intercepted the single injected test virus, EICAR,
during a simulated attack launched by the program PC Security Test
v3.5.This may have been because that's all there was to find, I'd removed
all the standard spyware barriers normally in place
(CounterSpyBeta32,SpySweeperV4, and EwidoV3.5) and had intentionally
surfed in dangerous territory over the weeklong test. Spot runs of
CounterSpyBeta, SpysweeperV4, and EwidoV3.5 during that period also failed
to turn up any threats. For performance comparison, the CounterSpyBeta32
run took 6 hours 6 minutes, and Ewido took 3 hours 54 minutes. I
experienced significant start-up problems with ZeroSpyware during
rebooting after its initial run: not only did it take over a minute to
initialize ZeroSpyware, it had flagged 685 "Intrusions" (almost all
spyware files previously detected & quarantined by SpySweeper), and each
one of the screens had to be OK'd by hand, taking more than 10 minutes for
the 685 clicks. Surely there must be far better ways of handling this kind
of event, if indeed it's required at all. Then the same 685 intrusion
tiles reappeared the next time I rebooted, at which point I gave up and
auto-approved all 685 & prayed for the best! I definitely did not
understand the implications of this decision, although no harm has yet
resulted to my knowledge. Another curious event was that ZeroSpyware
initially identified 58 "Unknown Applications to be investigated",
including, of all things "CounterSpy", "Ewido", and even "Norton
Anti-Virus" as well as other well-known brand name programs. My experience
with the new Vulnerability Scan component is that it's not yet fit for
human consumption, at least not in my machine, and I doubt in anyone
else's, either. First of all, it neither asks for drive(s) to scan, nor
tells you what it intends to scan, nor what it's going to do with the
results. Next, its initial run hung at 16 minutes elapsed, at an
erroneously reported 43% of completion, fortunately, as I'd allowed only
30min for it to do its thing before the initial Spyware run was scheduled.
The next day, when I reinitiated it manually, it took 9 hours 2 minutes to
complete, identifying only four benign 'Threats' , all major vendor
modules, e.g., Sun's JAVAWEBSTART.DLL twice, Microsoft's VBE6.DLL, and
WINWORD.EXE also from Microsoft. From there, things got worse: now set up
to run only weekly at 1300 on Tuesdays, it cranked up about 0200 on Wed 31
August putting it in conflict with the Spyware scan which started at 0400,
and then did the same on Thursday 01 Sep. At that point I called
TechSupport, who referred problem to 2nd Level, who's yet to heard back
from. TechSupport's suggested work-around, changing its start time again,
failed.
Other comments
Reviewer 1: . Reviewer 1: I am using Microsoft Antispyware in
conjunction with ZeroSpyware and they both seem to work well together,
except ZeroSpyware finds more material than Microsoft Antispyware does.
ZeroSpyware, because it catches spyware in real-time, will detect any
program that tries to change one’s home page. In the past, I continually
ran into this problem but now, no longer.
Reviewer 2: For me, this program did not work well. It is
impossible for me to tell whether this is because of an inherent flaw in
the program or a specific conflict with my hardware or software. From what
I did see of this program, there were too many false alerts flagging
normal programs. This should be refined in future releases. The good news
is that, once I uninstalled ZeroSpyware2005, I was once again able to
navigate with Windows Explorer. At the time of this writing, it is unknown
whether there were any other system compromises which will require
reinstallation of a backup of my operating system and programs.
Reviewer 3: My only other comment is this: If you are really
serious about protecting your computer you will, as quickly as you finish
reading this, go the ZeroSpyware 2005 and download the fully functional
trial program. I am sure that as soon as your trial period is over, if not
before then, you will want to purchase this excellent program. I give it
my highest recommendation without reservation.
Reviewer 4: I mentioned above about the Remote Restore menu option.
This option takes you to the part of the program that allows you to chat
with a technician. It also has some very nice utilities hiding there. The
button probably should have been split into two separate options, one that
gets to the chat function and one that gets you to the utility programs.
My guess is that having all of these things in one spot means that the
technician can then direct the user to try different utilities, but many
power users would probably find these utilities useful. Putting them on
their own or at least letting the user know that they are there would be
helpful.
Reviewer 5: I currently run several anti-malware tools; I did not
shut them down during my trial of ZeroSpyware, which may account for the
fact that ZeroSpyware found Zero spyware. Watching a recent scan, I
noticed it was only scanning files on my C: partition. Apparently when I
first set up the scheduled scan I overlooked the option to select drives
to scan, and it defaulted to C:; while I thought this may explain the lack
of hits, when I scanned all logical drives it still found no problems.
Giving FBM Software the benefit of the doubt, I'll presume that this
software does work and my system is simply very well protected! Regardless
of my experience, the Default Scan should search for active drives, or at
least reference the Registry to determine where programs are installed,
where cookies and attachments and history data are stored, etc. I'm fairly
comfortable with Windows and with tools such as ZeroSpyware; if I
overlooked the 'Select' option and set up the Scheduled Scan to the
default, I would imagine someone less comfortable with these matters would
'play it safe' by using the default scan. Therefore the default scan
should scan all active partitions! The License agreement does not seem to
be viewable from within the application, it is not apparently stored in
the installation directory, and it does not appear to be available on the
web site. When installing, I read it and it seemed fair, but I didn't
print a copy. Now I want to check it and I can't find it!
FBM Software responded: The EULA will be accessible from the ZeroSpyware
folder in Windows Explorer after installing the patch update.
Reviewer 6: In the case of any software program or service that you
buy, an important part of the package should be the support you will
receive if you need it. On this front, I give ZeroSpyware very high marks.
Not only is the email response rapid and to the point, you can chat in
“real-time” with a support person, 24/7. I had a question, which did not
get resolved by email (not, I hasten to add because ZeroSpyware support
was deficient, but because of the peculiar way that I set up my computer).
I went online on a Sunday evening, did not have to wait for more than a
few minutes, and was connected with “Jane”, who worked through the problem
with me. We successfully resolved the issue quite quickly. You can get to
that Chat either from the Website, or via Remote Restore from within
ZeroSpyware itself. Kudos and thanks to Jane, and congratulations to
ZeroSpyware for this very innovative service.
Reviewer 7: ZeroSpyware alerted its own Browser Plug-in, which it
flagged as a Browser Helper Object. The History Panel still indicates
"Quarantined" even after manual deletion of StopSign, hard to understand
without some rationale being given. Threat Level, now missing, should
definitely be listed in Scan History report. That it inspects Registry and
Files concurrently is a very good feature. I don't understand the need for
the caution: "Please be sure to save all opened documents" before making a
Spyware run. Is that general wisdom, or something specific to be afraid of
in ZeroSpyware? This program is a good beginning with some bright spots,
particularly its TechSupport Level 1 ( I still don't know whether Level-2
exists) and an organization giving 24/7 service. But, there are lots of
other weak spots and well short of being ready for reliable, serious
customer use in increasingly dangerous waters
Will you continue to use it?
Reviewer 1: ZeroSpyware definitely shines above the others with its
penetrating scans, its ability to identify and prompt for Greywear, and
its vulnerability detection process. Yes, I will definitely continue to
use it.
Reviewer 2: No.
Reviewer 3: Absolutely.
Reviewer 4: Yes.
Reviewer 5: If the EULA allows me to transfer the license from
machine to machine, I will definitely consider renewing the license, and
using it as a comprehensive tool to clean up computers I work on –
install, clean, uninstall. If that's not permitted, I'll probably continue
to use it as one of many tools to protect my system, but when the license
expires I'll stop using it (and continue using the many excellent free
tools I already use).
Reviewer 6: Yes, of course
Reviewer 7: No. I'll watch for improvements, and possibly test
again in a year or so; but, it's just not competitive in its current state
of development and testing. Also, this many obvious bugs (or poor design
choices) call for much more exhaustive testing by a competent test
organization or extensive prerelease customer Beta-testing. As it now
stands this product is definitely not ready for prime time!
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