Customer Reviews

Webroot Spy Sweeper Internet Essentials Suite

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Spy Sweeper and Window Washer portions seem pretty good. You can fine-tune them to do or not do particular things, and can schedule tasks to occur at specific times.

The basic function of Window Washer is to remove the "obvious" lists of file names and user names that get stored by various programs, such as the "Recently Opened" list, the history list of URL's in a browser, as well as the obscure portions Windows itself, such in error message logs, temp files, and other locations. There are about 30 spots it can clean for you, including the "slack" space in clusters. "Slack" is the left-over portion of a previous file that has been over-written. For true paranoics, there is an optional "bleach" cycle that will overwrite the slack up to 39 times.

It also cleans out cookies, but you can have it leave specific ones you really need.

Spy Sweeper functions like an anti-virus program and looks for ad-ware, key-stroke, and other "spy" type files on your computer. It is very customizable.

If you have Window Washer or Spy Sweeper do "everything", expect it to take a pretty long time - perhaps you'll want to run it overnight...

As IE offers anti-pop up and anti-spam features, I have not installed those two portions of the software, but they might prove useful to some people.

I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THEIR SOFTWARE.YOU NEED SPYSWEEP TO PREVENT BROWSER HIJACKING,IDENTITY THEFT,REMOVES MALWARE THAT CAN DESTROY YOUR PROGRAMS WHICH WONT BE IDENTIFIED BY YOUR ANTIVIRUS OR FIREWALL PROGRAMS.I USE SPYSWEEPER IN ALL MY MACHINES.DONT FORGET WINDOW WASHER.THIS IS GREAT FOR REMOVING YOUR ONLINE TRACKS.MOST IMPORTANT REAL-LIFE CUSTOMER SUPPORT THAT IS INCLUDED WITH YOUR PURCHASE.THIS COMPANY REALLY CARES ABOUT ITS CUSTOMERS.THEY WILL REALLY HELP YOU.THEY GO WAY BEYOND WE ONLY DEAL WITH OUR OWN SOFTWARE.THEY WILL TRY TO HELP YOU EVEN WITH PROGRAM CONFLICTS.THIS PROGRAM I GIVE 5+STARS AND MOST IMPORTANT THEY HAVE LIVE PHONE SUPPORT. A MUST

Granted, one may not need all of the utilities (I use gmail which has great spam controls), but the spy sweeper and windows washer utilities are the best that I have found. I find my computer much safer with them. And windows washer cleans out blank space. I also like that the newest version works much faster than previous versions. A must to protect your PC.

Window Washer is okay, but it can't clean all temp files because some are in use and it doesn't have a setting to run before on the next boot, as does CyberScrub. It also can't scramble file attributes. (But CyberScrub seems to create a blue screen of death in the process and it's not worth the scare I go through, rebooting with hopes that it didn't scrub a needed startup file!)

Spam Shredder is a pain - the Junk E-mail function in Outlook is faster and it doesn't alter the e-mail settings to run incoming mail through the filter. Also, getting an e-mail telling me about a blocked e-mail is double work; I still have to check to see if it's junk or not.

I don't know if Spy Sweeper does any better than the freebies available on the web.

Pop Up Washer is unnecessary, now that IE has one integrated. In fact PUW creates an error on every exit from IE, unless disabled. Why install a product just to disable it???

All in all, not worth a penny more than the 38 cent stamp and envelope for the rebate submission. In fact, one of those free after rebate deals from CompUSA (I think it was Aloha Bob's PC Backup) did something to either my registry or Install Shield and now I am unable to install some programs that use that function. Bummer...can't wait until the program I want to install is one I ABSOLUTELY NEED to install.

Although I have always been satisfied with the spy sweeper- Spyware detection and removal program--this was a major disappointment. After installing this product (according to their directions)--nothing on my computer worked correctly--some programs did not work at all. I uninstalled it and everything was back to normal. Do NOT waste your money on this!!!! Stick to separate products for virus protection to detect and remove spy and malware.