SpywareBlaster
Posted by: Tim Tibbetts on: 05/09/2004 11:00 PM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]
SpywareBlaster comes to us from a small company called Javacool Software. Their mission statement says that they are all about helping people protect their privacy and security simply because they value their own. They feel people should have access to free tools to accomplish this, as does MajorGeeks, and hope the user can realize Javacool Softwares’ goal by doing this. SpywareBlaster has become a popular and well known tool alongside some of Javacools other free utilities.
The interface to SpywareBlaster is easy to use. It walks you through the basic steps including reminding you up front and often that you need to update the program. Like an anti-virus, any good spyware tool is only as good as its’ current update. It then offers quick and easy to find links to enable or disable protection. Options you can browse through can always be found at the left side of program. These options, when clicked, open the subcategories to the top of the screen. Included is a help file that does a super job of introducing you to the programs purpose, a "Getting Started" section, a more detailed setup and even a glossary of terms.
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[thumb]spywareblaster1.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spywareblaster2.jpg[/thumb]
</center>
The categories are broken into “Protection”, “System Snapshot”, “Tools” and “Updates”. “Protection” is the heart and soul of SpywareBlaster. From here you can selectively choose to block Active-X based spyware and dialers and or spyware tracking cookies. All websites and files to be blocked have a small checkbox next to them, so you can easily customize your blocked list to allow anything you want. You can verify that it is turned on and protecting Internet Explorer or Mozilla/Firefox. It apparently does not, at this time, support other browsers like Mozilla or Opera.
With “System Snapshot” you can take an image of your computer to restore any system or browser settings should you become infected with spyware. Due to the the many types of spyware out there, and how often new ones appear, this is a great idea for any spyware program.
<center>
[thumb]spywareblaster3.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spywareblaster4.jpg[/thumb]
</center>
The “Tools” section allows you to view and change various browser settings, create encrypted backup copies of your hosts file, kill flash animations and specify Active-X controls you want to block. It even allows you to modify a few Internet Explorer options such as: changing the title bar and disabling the Internet Explore home page settings. All of these are very handy if you really want to customize your browser settings.
Finally, the “Updates” section allows you to manually update or configure automatic updates. It also provides a link to make a donation, if so inclined. This was the only place I recall seeing a donation request and thought it was a classy way to do it.
SpywareBlaster only needs to be run to apply your preferences. It does not need to run in order to work, keeping your system free of one less startup program. Opening SpywareBlaster weekly and updating it is all that is needed. Our tests with SpywareBlaster showed it to be very effective at blocking many known web “bugs”. It blocked access to some websites, would not allow Active-X spyware to be installed by others and in some cases simply allowed me to look at websites safely that otherwise would have left a lot of spyware on my machine. That said, a handful also got by the program. MySearch toolbar installed without a problem and a few porn, crack and other cookies considered spyware by Ad-Aware and Spybot were left on my machine. I did not really appreciate SpywareBlaster until I restored our test machine and installed spyware without it. Within 5 minutes the first porn website I visited nailed me with 32 porn pop-ups. At this point, while waiting for my computer to respond, I appreciated SpywareBlaster more then ever.
Considering SpywareBlaster protects you from over 2,800 known spyware items, it is an excellent tool to install to prevent a lot of web based spyware from ever being installed. It is free, easy to use and quite effective. It is not a tool to use solely to protect yourself from spyware, but a great way to start. As long as you keep in mind that it will not protect you from everything, and keep your favorite spyware cleaning tool handy, SpywareBlaster is a must have program.
Score: <img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star_half.gif"> (4.5/5 Stars)
The interface to SpywareBlaster is easy to use. It walks you through the basic steps including reminding you up front and often that you need to update the program. Like an anti-virus, any good spyware tool is only as good as its’ current update. It then offers quick and easy to find links to enable or disable protection. Options you can browse through can always be found at the left side of program. These options, when clicked, open the subcategories to the top of the screen. Included is a help file that does a super job of introducing you to the programs purpose, a "Getting Started" section, a more detailed setup and even a glossary of terms.
<center>
[thumb]spywareblaster1.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spywareblaster2.jpg[/thumb]
</center>
The categories are broken into “Protection”, “System Snapshot”, “Tools” and “Updates”. “Protection” is the heart and soul of SpywareBlaster. From here you can selectively choose to block Active-X based spyware and dialers and or spyware tracking cookies. All websites and files to be blocked have a small checkbox next to them, so you can easily customize your blocked list to allow anything you want. You can verify that it is turned on and protecting Internet Explorer or Mozilla/Firefox. It apparently does not, at this time, support other browsers like Mozilla or Opera.
With “System Snapshot” you can take an image of your computer to restore any system or browser settings should you become infected with spyware. Due to the the many types of spyware out there, and how often new ones appear, this is a great idea for any spyware program.
<center>
[thumb]spywareblaster3.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]spywareblaster4.jpg[/thumb]
</center>
The “Tools” section allows you to view and change various browser settings, create encrypted backup copies of your hosts file, kill flash animations and specify Active-X controls you want to block. It even allows you to modify a few Internet Explorer options such as: changing the title bar and disabling the Internet Explore home page settings. All of these are very handy if you really want to customize your browser settings.
Finally, the “Updates” section allows you to manually update or configure automatic updates. It also provides a link to make a donation, if so inclined. This was the only place I recall seeing a donation request and thought it was a classy way to do it.
SpywareBlaster only needs to be run to apply your preferences. It does not need to run in order to work, keeping your system free of one less startup program. Opening SpywareBlaster weekly and updating it is all that is needed. Our tests with SpywareBlaster showed it to be very effective at blocking many known web “bugs”. It blocked access to some websites, would not allow Active-X spyware to be installed by others and in some cases simply allowed me to look at websites safely that otherwise would have left a lot of spyware on my machine. That said, a handful also got by the program. MySearch toolbar installed without a problem and a few porn, crack and other cookies considered spyware by Ad-Aware and Spybot were left on my machine. I did not really appreciate SpywareBlaster until I restored our test machine and installed spyware without it. Within 5 minutes the first porn website I visited nailed me with 32 porn pop-ups. At this point, while waiting for my computer to respond, I appreciated SpywareBlaster more then ever.
Considering SpywareBlaster protects you from over 2,800 known spyware items, it is an excellent tool to install to prevent a lot of web based spyware from ever being installed. It is free, easy to use and quite effective. It is not a tool to use solely to protect yourself from spyware, but a great way to start. As long as you keep in mind that it will not protect you from everything, and keep your favorite spyware cleaning tool handy, SpywareBlaster is a must have program.
Score: <img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star_half.gif"> (4.5/5 Stars)
