Webroot Spy Sweeper AntiSpyware

Other products by Webroot Software Inc

Product Features

• Webroot continues to improve Spy Sweeper, and provides subscribers with regular enhancements to the application
• Detects, quarantines, and deletes harmful spyware
• Simple one-click spyware search
• Time-saving custom configuration options
• Protects against identity theft, browser hijackers, hackers, and more

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001F0XHE
• Item model number: 64301
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 27, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,101 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Software > Networking > Security
  #47 in	Software > Web Development > Internet Utilities > Security & Filtering

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Spy Sweeper is award-winning software that effectively and safely detects and removes spyware from your PC to protect you from identity theft, browser hijackers, hackers, keyloggers and Trojans.

Features:

Powerful Detection, Quarantine, and Deletion:

Spy Sweeper protects you with a sophisticated and regularly updated database of spyware definitions, the power to disable spyware, and the knowledge you need to analyze risks to your privacy.

You can manage spyware without harming other programs on your computer using the quarantine feature. This unique disable-and-store capability places spyware in a safe place on your system until you decide whether or not to remove them permanently.

Simple and Easy-to-Use:

A single click kicks off an in-depth sweep for covert spyware on your system, providing powerful spyware protection to novice and power users alike.

Premier Customer Support:

Spyware is incredibly invasive and can easily disrupt essential system functionality. Spy Sweeper is backed by expert technicians who will support you through any spyware problems you encounter.

Spyware Management Tools:

Spy Sweeper eliminates the need to research a spy more than once. Any time a piece of spyware is found on your system, you can add it to the Always Keep or Always Remove list.

Spy Sweeper Knowledge Base:

Right-click on a specific spy in the Quarantined, Always Keep, or Always Remove screens for instant access to the Spy Sweeper knowledge base. This database provides information about what Spy Sweeper found on your computer and the knowledge to decide what you want to keep or delete.

The database defines:

• Category of spyware (adware, keylogger, Trojan, etc.)
• Program capabilities
• Methods of infection (freeware download, drive-by download, third-party installation, etc.)
• Risk analysis
• Recommended action

Active Shields:

Real-time protection notifies you when spies attempt to run in-memory, while adware cookie-blocking and homepage protection ensure that your online browsing sessions are protected from spyware.

Time-Saving Custom Configuration Options:

• Spy Sweeper can skip files larger than a user-defined size.
• User can opt out of performing a memory scan.
• User can opt out of performing a registry scan.
• Spy Sweeper can sweep all folders, or it can be directed to sweep known spy folders in a specific drive.

Scan Progress Bars: progress bars clearly illustrate where you are in the sweeping process and how much time remains before your sweep is complete.

Smart Sweepers and Smart Definitions: Smart Sweepers and Smart Definitions allow Spy Sweeper to adapt to rapidly morphing spies on the fly--offering you more timely anti-spyware protection.

Auto Removal from Run Registry Entries: Spy Sweeper automatically scans all the Run registry entries looking for a reference to a spy that was found.

Flexible Removal Timing: Spy Sweeper adapts to the sophistication of a spy and determines the best time to remove it--offering a powerful tool against tough spies that can only be removed at certain times, for example, from the hard drive during a system reboot.

Enterprise Support: Support for network and removable drives offer network administrators the ability to control spyware across the network.

Product Description

Powerful detection, quarantine and deletion. Spy Sweeper protects you with a sophisticated database of spyware definitions, the power to disable spyware, and the knowledge you need to analyze your risks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but you need more than this, September 14, 2004

By	Alexander E. Paulsen "AlexP" (Jacksonville, Fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Update 3/9/05

Webroot is really doing their homework. My suto update has me up to 3.5 which has nearly 69,000 definitions installed.

I stopped using IE in favor of Firefox so I had to stop using the Yahoo tool bar with Anti-spy, but trying other packages in concert with Spy Sweep so far Spy Sweeper has found more and been more thorough than any of the other anti-Spy products.

I am trying CA Pest Patrol on another system and will compare the two programs and update again. My experience with CA EZ Armor has been very positive so if Pest Patrol is along the same lines as EZ-AV and EZ-FW I expect to be impressed, but for my money Webroot has the best and most thorough product.

*******************************************************

I use this in combination with Ad Aware. Spy Sweeper finds items that Ad Aware misses and vice versa. The first time I installed the package I ran it and the system found several questionable items. I ran Ad Aware right afterwards and it found 3 more.

A few weeks later I did the reverse on my daughters computer. Ad Aware pronounced the syetem clean while Spy Sweeper found a keystroke logger.

I suppose no one package will do it all. Last week I ran Spy Sweeper and Ad Aware. Both said I was clean. The I installed Yahoo Anti-Spy and it found two items one was another key logger!

Webroot does have great tech support, and they keep the software automatrically updated for you. The latest has over 30,552 signatures. It does a good job, but there is no single package that will find all the spyware out there. I recommend using this in concert with Ad Aware or Yahoo Anti-Spy.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PC Magazine's Editor's Choice - with good reason, February 20, 2005

By	The Rocketman (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Review of Spy Sweeper AntiSpyware ver 3.5:

Installation was trivial on my two-year old XP system and Spy Sweeper didn't conflict with other programs running, including Norton Anti-Virus 2003. It's possible to micromanage which features you want to turn on/off. If you insist on using Internet Explorer, this product is critical, although I prefer Firefox for my browser which does a better job with pop-up ads and such.

Even with Firefox, however, Spy Sweeper found spyware and cookies that Ad-Aware missed. On a full sweep, it takes something around 10 minutes to sweep your disk, so while it's not super-fast, it's not super-slow either and for the most part, you will be running this product when you aren't using your computer.

The license is good for a year's worth of updates and assuming Webroot continues to keep up with what's out there, this is a piece of software that will give you peace of mind for a very cheap price. Highly recommended.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware of renewing subscription - resets expiration date, January 28, 2006

By	M. Bishop (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been using SpySweeper for 2 years now. It generally does what it is supposed to do. However, it was nearing time for me to renew. SpySweeper becomes a huge, irritating nag when it comes time to renew. Not only does the software bug you all the time, but Webroot sends out reminder e-mails too. With 3 weeks left on my subscription, I decided to renew, mostly just to get rid of all the nagging. Well, guess what? - the renewal process reset my expiration date. Rather than giving me 3 weeks plus 1 year, the renewal starts immediately, and ends in exactly 1 year - which means, that I've been ripped off for 3 weeks of paid subscription. Maybe Webroot thinks their users are too stupid to notice this deceptive practice of moving up renewal dates. I've complained to them - and if they don't make amends, then I cannot recommend this product to anyone.