Spy Sweeper
Posted on: 05/12/2004 11:00 PM

Webroot is a privately held company based in Boulder, Colorado, that creates innovative privacy, protection and performance solutions for Internet users. Founded in 1997, the company provides a suite of high-quality, easy-to-use software that guides and empowers customers as they surf the Web, giving them peace of mind that their personal information is private and protected. Webroot's software consistently receives top ratings and recommendations by respected third-party media and product reviewers. Webroot has operations in the U.S. and Europe. Spy Sweeper has been making a name for itself as worthwhile tool for removing spyware. It is also one of the few that is subscription based.

The install routine to Spy Sweeper let me choose to automatically run the program and covered a few basic options including run immediately, load at startup, enabling automatic updates as well as looking at release notes and viewing Spy News when available. This was a nice touch, saving me from browsing these options after the program starts and letting me get right to work. The program then launches your browser and loads a webpage at Webroot.com explaining the demo version and what you get with the subscription based version.

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The first window asks you to update the program, a requirement for any spyware removal tool to work properly. The layout of the Spy Sweeper is easy to use. Most options you would normally use are already preconfigured, so, you can simply update and run the program or you can spend plenty of time going through the wealth of options to configure it to your personal preferences. You can schedule routine scans, lock your home page, track cookies, monitory memory and basic program configuration options.

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Spy Sweeper, at the default low Sweep Priority Level, scanned my machine very quickly, but removal was much slower. After scanning, Spy Sweeper breaks down everything it finds and neatly organizes it as the main software found and expandable to view all associated traces. All software found is clickable explaining exactly what that particular spyware does and how it is harmful to your computer. When removing spyware you are warned by Spy Sweeper that certain programs should be closed to be removed. You are also warned about any software removal that may cause other programs to quit working. It also repeats the category and description of the spyware in question so you know what you are dealing with. Spy Sweeper also warns you of files that can not be removed and recommends you remove manually with Windows Explorer. These files are probably in use and can not be deleted by the Spy Sweeper, but in this case it forced me to click “ok” about 25 times, when it would be a better idea for Spy Sweeper to delete these files on the next reboot, or offer “ignore all” as an option as similar programs do. To solve this, I created a folder shortcut on my desktop and removed these files after the next reboot. All known spyware items seemed to be deleted as far as the taskbar was concerned, but quite a few folders were left behind. I allowed Spy Sweeper to remove spyware that rendered Kazaa useless, but it failed to remove Kazaa completely. This may not be a bad thing, as one could argue Kazaa may not be spyware, but it does load your machine with spyware and popup ads, not to mention the many viruses and Trojans you can download on the network.

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I did a new scan after reboot and Spy Sweeper again found Hotbar, Gator (GAIN) and only one cookie. This is not a bad thing since some files can be in use, so I like to do a double scan on a heavily infested machine. I once again rebooted to make sure they were removed, and they were. The only other problem I had was my Temporary Internet Files and Cookie folders were loaded with cookies and images, some relating to these spyware related items that were removed. Two of these files were infected with the Trojan horse Revop.C and Downloader.Dyfica.AC and were detected by AVG, not Spy Sweeper. Two of Spy Sweeper’s competitions both found left over cookies and registry entries from spyware removed by Spy Sweeper.


Spy Sweeper earns points by doing a fairly decent job of removing spyware with a user friendly interface. It appears from our tests that the routines to thoroughly remove spyware could use a little work in the speed department. Spy Sweeper scans fast, but removal is a bit slow and there are a couple of minor interface issues I would like to see addressed. It is updated frequently, so one can assume small issues like this will be addressed. Since two of the best, most popular spyware removal tools are free, Spy Sweeper again loses points for using the subscription model. While that works in the anti virus area, I am not sure I am ready for yet another product that needs to be paid for every year as many commercial anti virus and firewall programs are. I can see where a company would think this was a good idea looking to the future, but as a consumer I feel there are better, completely free tools available.


[4/5) Stars

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