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Exactly What Are Spyware and Adware? Spyware is a term used to refer to computer software programs that are:
There are literally thousands of spyware programs in the world today. Some are installed by spouse's with the purpose of spying on their wives or husbands. Some are accidentally acquired when visiting a malicious web site or opening an attachment that has been infected. In some ways, spyware is similar to computer viruses. The main differences are that spyware usually does not attempt to spread itself directly and it usually does not attempt to damage or destroy the data on the host PC. Adware is a category of spyware with a specific purpose. It often gathers information about your web browsing and nearly always directs advertising at you. The advertising usually takes the form of pop-up ads, but you may also find yourself receiving a lot more SPAM if the Adware has shared your email address with unscruplous advertisers. In addition to representing a potentially serious threat to the privacy of users of a PC containing spyware, spyware and adware may also degrade the performance of the computer by using memory, CPU, and network bandwidth. Below we review three of the best anti-spyware anti-adware programs available and rate their performance in four categories:
Below are the results of our testing:
CounterSpy is an award winning anti-spyware product developed by Sunbelt Software. If you are in need of anti-virus protection as well, Sunbelt also has a package that combines anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-adware in one package. As usual, we tested this product in our lab and here’s our verdict. Installation & Setup CounterSpy is very easy to install. Its installation process is much like any other Windows application. It even includes support for Windows Vista so except if it's being installed on a stone-age platform, a user shouldn’t encounter any major problems. Ease of Use CounterSpy 2.0 comes with an interface that’s helpful for novice and advanced users alike. While novice users can work with default settings, more advanced users may use the more complex features under Active Protection and System Tool by customizing these features to suit their personal preferences. System Scan CounterSpy allows users choose between a full system scan and one for a particular drive or removable disk. The full system detected 56 infections and took around 22mins. Removal Effectiveness On our test systems, CounterSpy completely eliminated 44 out of 56 spyware infections successfully. This is an 80% removal rate – one of the highest we’ve seen. Overall Performance Hardly anyone would be displeased by CounterSpy’s overall performance. Even when we extracted an additional RAM from one of our test systems bringing its total random access memory to 512MB, CounterSpy continued to perform well. It’s on our short list of anti-spyware products that don't guzzle up systems resources. Updates CounterSpy comes with an automatic updates feature that needs no user input. We did notice some updates require a system reboot. Customer Support Sunbelt provides a User's Guide, and a Getting Started document for download. There’s toll-free phone support whenever users encounter problems. An online help database allows users locate and carry out quick fixes themselves. Let’s not forget a blog with helpful articles and of course email support. Apparently, Sunbelt did their home work in the customer support area. Our experience from working with numerous anti-spyware programs tells us that the support for CounterSpy is in fact one of the best. Furthermore, not many anti-spyware companies will bother to create a 118-page User's Guide. Summary Sunbelt offers a 15-day trial version of CounterSpy available for download. A single license costs around $20, but most effective anti-spyware products are not that cheap nowadays. CounterSpy is an effective anti-spyware product offering superb overall performance at a bargain price. A three user license costs around $45. Rating Sunbelt’s CounterSpy 2.0 received CNET’s Editor Choice Award for Dec, 2007. This product is definitely worth the award, and we are confident CounterSpy is well deserving of our 9.0/10 rating. Minimum System Requirements
When testing the software on a 9 month old notebook, we carried out a full system scan and it discovered 93 infections. Fortunately, it was able to treat these infections as a good anti-spyware should and fully removed a 74 of these. Key features of XoftSpySE Anti-Spyware: Strong Performance Not only is the XoftSpy SE anti-spyware an anti-spyware, it’s a great tool for removing Adware, Pop-up kits, Keyloggers, Trojans, Hijackers, Worms and Malware. Easy to Use Interface It’s vista compatible yet it has one of the simplest GUIs’ we’ve seen on anti-spyware. All important tasks are well within reach and new users should never have a hard time finding their way around. Large Database XoftSpy SE works with a database with over 225,000 known threats. Of course, new threats are found every other day, that’s where the automatic update feature comes in. Full System Scan The full system scan feature makes XoftSpy SE special, while it scans through a computer’s hard drive, it doesn’t leave out common hiding places for unwanted applications such as the registry, and memory. Quarantine for potentially unwanted applications ensures an application doesn’t get deleted without the users’ permission. A downside is that PC’s with little memory may experience a slow-down effect while full-system scanning is on. Automatic Updates Automatic Updating connects the XoftSpy to the update servers anytime there’s an internet connection. This helps keep a PC updated from threats as they are discovered daily. Users can schedule automatic updates. Customer Support When a strange application is found in quarantine and there’s uncertainty whether or not to delete a crucial system file, users can ring up customer support provided by ParetoLogic. There’s an online help desk feature on their website enabling users get faster responses to their queries. XoftSpy SE customer support may also be reached via email. Asides from the obvious spy ware, mal ware removal features, readers pondering other benefits they stand to gain from trying out XoftSpy SE should take solace in the following:
Summary From experience with the XoftSpy SE anti-spyware, XoftSpy SE is a great application with very few places it falls short on. Rating:It would be dishonest to give anything below 8.5/10. System Requirements If you’re already thinking of downloading this software, make sure your computer matches the following system requirements:
>> Get A FREE Spyware Scan With XoftSpy SE By Clicking Here <<
Performance Lab tests carried out on NoAdware proved the application is back on track to becoming one of the best anti-spyware out there. It discovered 53 infections and effectively removed almost half of them – (26 of the 53) a 49% success rate. We believe there’s a lot more room for improvement but hey! NoAdware definitely keeps a safer PC than many other products out there. Interface NoAdware has a simple interface that’s very easy to use. Useful features are easy to find and not locked under adjacent features - like some other anti-spyware. A number of NoAdware users have reportedly experienced graphical display issues while using NoAdware, we encountered no such issues. Automatic Scheduling While you match off to bed, automatic scheduling enables you schedule a scan. You can pick any day of the week you want the scan to hold or even be more specific and choose a time of the day. Browser Shield The Browser Shield protects users while they surf the internet. It locks the Home Page and Favorites aspects of your browsers and requires you make a decision whenever a web page wishes to add itself automatically. No Quarantine and RollbackSet Backs NoAdware’s spyware detection algorithm isn’t been perfected and the absence of a quarantine or rollback feature means a user who accidentally deletes a windows system file after a scan would have to find to a way to fix that error outside of NoAdware. Summary NoAdware’s history is somewhat controversial. Within the past few years, numerous customers have attacked NoAdware for using aggressive marketing tactics, with some implying it displayed false spyware and adware infections to hasten the need to make a purchase. It was previously known as a rogue anti-spyware until recently when Spyware Warrior erased it from its list of rogue anti-spyware. Our comparisons with previous versions revealed that the present NoAdware 5.0 has a lot more features than its predecessors, its adware signature database is quite larger than what it used to be and it now updates as often as 4 times a week. - this alone is progress as customers are not left in the dark when it comes to keeping their PCs spyware free. Rating (6.5/10) Though NoAdware seems to be an effective anti-spyware product, its infection removal rate still lurks somewhere around 50%. We would like to believe the geeks at NoAdware have turned a new leaf and are now desiring of making their anti-spyware one of the best out there hence it receives a 6.5/10 from us. System Requirements The NoAdware site provides no system requirements for users, but here’s what we think:
>> Click Here For a FREE No Obligation Spyware Scan Using NoAdware<<
Which One Came Out On Top? Both Counterspy and XoftSpy performed well however since Counterspy comes with a free 15 days fully functional trial, this was our top pick. CounterSpy performed extremely well even in the toughest of situations and is definitely worth the paltry $19.95 spend.
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ParentLogic’s XoftSpySE Anti-Spyware software is one of the very common anti-spyware applications out there. The XoftSpy SE anti-spy ware is known to be highly effective in detecting and cleaning out ad ware, malware, key loggers, hijackers and spyware infections. Before coming up with this review, we decided to put this anti-spy ware to the test with some practical simulations in our lab.
NoAdware is owned by a company going by the same “NoAdware” name. The NoAdware main site reveals the anti-spyware was designed to detect and remove Spyware, Adware, Dialer and Web Bug threats. In writing this review, we decided to put NoAdware to the test, here’s our take:
