Spyware Terminator

[Damaris]

Isaw a couple reviews about spyware terminator on wilders and spyware info info that basically liked its real time but its scanner isn't anything special. The interface is at least better then defender and it does integrate with clamwin antivirus so if you use that you will probably love this. I don't like real time antispyware on my computers but if you do run them then this is one to look at.

Interface is very nice and its not to bad on resource usage(13,076k right now). I liked the fact that it has multiple modes for real time(advanced, beginner, and another one). Basically you can have it do everything automatically or notify you of every little thing you do. It has automatic updates as well. Also it says it works on all versions of windows so if you don't have xp/2000 your included as well.

Forgot to mention that its scanner is kind of funky. It will list a lot of stuff thats not spyware in another tab. No its not false positives it just lists everything that starts up with you computer in it. Strange but I guess if you like it...

Spyware is software designed for collecting information about your Web activity and send it to an external party. This information can include passwords, credit card numbers and other critical personal data, and can be used to steal your identity, make charges to your credit account, and other felonies. This free program allows you to scan your system to see if it has been infected by this type of malware. First, you need to configure the program by selecting the main use you intend to give the program (scan your computer, protect it against spyware, or against spyware AND viruses. If you choose this last option, which is new to this version, the program will download ClamAV 0.96, which is an open-source antivirus program). Then, you can perform several types of scans: Fast, Full or Custom, each with their own characteristics. The program will explore your system and detect all the suspect files, giving you the option of removing them or report them as false positives. The main window of the program shows the current status of the program and has a useful panel with information about new threats, as well as a search window you can use to find data about a suspect file. It is also possible to enable the real-time protection feature to reinforce the security of your system.

The program is fast and comprehensive, and can detect malware that can get unnoticed to other antispyware programs. It also updates daily. All these are good reasons for getting it installed in your computer.

Spyware Terminator has Real-Time Protection, HIPS, and antivirus.[2]It is design to remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers, and malware threats.[3]It has real-time protection shield, system scanning and quarantine for found spyware.It can scan the computer manually or with schedule full system sweeps.It performs scans of the computer's hard drives, memory, process, registry and cookies to seek out and remove known spyware threats.[4] Includes optional Web Security Guard which displays website reviews and threat level to help identify potentially dangerous Web sites.[5]

The program has three operating modes, for example. Select "scan for spyware" and it'll run on-demand scans only; choose "protect against spyware" and you'll also get real-time antispyware protection; select "Protect against spyware and viruses" and Spyware Terminator will integrate with ClamAV for comprehensive protection against all malware types.

You're also able to decide how involved you'd like to be in Spyware Terminator's decisions. Choose the Basic shield and the program automatically blocks all threats, so you'll see only the minimum of alerts. But if you like to take more control of your own security, opt for the Advanced shield and Spyware Terminator will leave all the important decisions to you.

And there are plenty of additional tools and options to keep you infection free. If asked Spyware Terminator can track your Windows Startup programs, monitor your services and drivers, and check web browser add-ons as they're installed. Other filters monitor your browser settings, winsock configuration and hosts file, while Web Security Guard scans your favourites to make sure you're not visiting dangerous websites.

Plenty of functionality, then, but you don't have to use it all: Spyware Terminator is supremely configurable, and it's easy to turn off features that you don't need, or perhaps clash with other security programs you're using already.

Over the past few weeks we have been covering different free utilities to help in keeping your computing experience secure and bug free. Continuing with our Secure Computing series, today we will take a look at the Anti-Spyware utility Spyware Terminator.

Another screen to mention during install is the Web Security Guard Toolbar. As you know I am not a fan of toolbars at all so I uncheck this. It does add extra protection while surfing the web, but both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 offer pretty decent protection on their own.

Unfortunately for those of you running a 64bit Windows system, not all Spyware Terminator features will work. Only Spyware scans and elimination are possible. 32bit Vista and XP users get the addition of Real-Time Protection.

Make sure and update the Spyware database right away by hitting the Update button. If you only want to update the database put a check in the box next to Update Database Only". This is a good choice to scan objects quickly, however you might want to uncheck it periodically to find new application updates also.

Scheduling scans is possible with Spyware Terminator. Just select the day and time an scan options and save. Although the Fast Scan option is a quick easy solution but only scans executable files. Scheduling a full scan will give you more piece of mind.

After a scan has completed you get report in the user interface. This is handy as I have found a few false positives. There are millions of software applications out there and no program will report them all correctly. Make sure to check this out and report false positives to ensure a better database.

There is a nice ability to keep track of all scans by copying the results to your clipboard and past into documentation. This comes in extremely handy if a machine is getting multiple instances of spyware.

I haven't reviewed Spyware Terminator before. A few years ago the good people at Crawler LLC got a little too friendly with a major adware distributor; other security utilities even started flagging Crawler's own products as adware. It just didn't seem like a logical candidate for review. That's all in the past, though. The well-regarded watchdog site SpywareWarrior.com verifies that the adware connection has been thoroughly severed. Crawler's Spyware Terminator 2.0 offers free spyware removal, spyware blocking, and protection against undesirable Web sites, as well as a multifunction toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. The question is, will this reprogrammed Terminator eliminate your spyware problems? I put it to the test to find out.

Crawler caused a bit of a dust-up by touting this product as "the industry's first totally free, full Internet security suite." Competitor CyberDefender countered that its CyberDefenderFREE 2.0 released last November, was actually the first all-free Internet security suite. In reality, neither product comes close to my definition of a security suite. Both are simply antispyware products with security-related add-ons. A true security suite has at an absolute minimum antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection. I also look for antispam and some degree of parental control or privacy protection. Out of those components, both these products include only antispyware.

I installed Spyware Terminator on ten virtual machines to test how well it could wade in and terminate the malware infesting those systems. One rabid malware sample tries to kill the installer process for most security products and usually succeeds, but Spyware Terminator powered right past that one with no trouble. So far, so good. On one test system, the scan repeatedly got stuck while scanning for malicious toolbars. I took the product's advice to scan in Safe Mode in case of trouble, which solved that little problem. Incomplete malware removal put another system into a blue-screen death spiral, crashing and rebooting over and over. But Spyware Terminator's tech experts identified the problem by rooting through a crash-dump file. They recommended a manual removal technique that put this system back on track.

Spyware Terminator takes an interesting approach to removing malware that has hooked its virtual claws into elements of the operating system. Rather than always requesting a reboot, it offers to terminate a list of specific processes. Say no and you'll definitely have to reboot; say yes and reboot may not be necessary. If a malware threat has hooked its files into system processes or other running programs, any attempt to delete those files will be denied. Many antispyware programs simply mark such files for deletion on reboot and then require a reboot. Spyware Terminator does its best to save you the aggravation of restarting the system. When possible, it identifies the processes that a particular threat has infested and offers to stop those processes to permit deletion. If you tell it no, it will just delete them after reboot, but if you say yes, you may save yourself some trouble. Unfortunately, a number of my malware samples resisted both deletion methods (or totally escaped being noticed).

Like Spy Sweeper and Spyware Doctor, Spyware Terminator uses a layered approach to protecting a clean system against malware infestation. The first line of defense is its Web Security Guard, which blocks access to dangerous Web sites and warns about iffy sites. At first glance, this feature looks a lot like the free SiteAdvisor, but looks can be deceiving. SiteAdvisor's ratings are based on a huge automated system that trawls the entire Internet and actively gathers information about sites that spam visitors, host malware, and so on. Web Security Guard, on the other hand, relies on user reports and Spyware Terminator's threat database. On the plus side, when I tried to visit a couple dozen sites known to host malware downloads, it blocked more than half of them. Better than nothing, but, why settle for puny when you can get brawnier protection for free?

3a8082e126