14 DAY TRIAL // Protecting your computer is one job not too many users consider, despite the alarm signals from malware fighting companies and computer security experts. The less protected your machine is, the more prone it is to collecting little bugs that can make working a nightmare. The worst part is that personal information on your computer can be transmitted to hackers and one day, you will just find your credit card empty, wondering how could that happen or questioning your wife for the sad event.
What few users know is that there are antispyware software that come at no expense and really do a good job. Spybot - Search and Destroy is a good spyware fighter on the market that is free and efficient. The recommendations say that you should always use more than one such software to scan on your computer just to be on the safe side. Unlike anti virus applications, these tools usually do not create a conflict and are not allergic to each other.
Arovax's AntiSpyware tool also comes free and the ease of use recommends it to neophytes. The interface is easy to use and the application cannot possibly create problems in what concerns configuration and settings.
The developer did not pay too much attention to the looks of the program but all the buttons are located in plain view and gives the clean, light impression the users are looking for. The menu consists of three tabs. Spyware Scan allows the user to set the locations the software should look for malware. You can go as deep as the last folder in the directory.
In the right hand side, there are the spyware management tools. An ignoring list can be created if Arovax AntiSpyware detects some false positives or if some of the cookies cataloged as malware are useful for the user. Quarantine option will enclose the malware detected until the user decides to get rid of it completely.
After the scan is complete, you will be provided with the number of malware detected in each of the categories that have been scanned: processes, registry, cookies and files. You will be displayed the number of files that have been scanned and the number of nasties detected. During my testing, all it found "threatening" on my computer were some cookies that were indeed of no good. Later scans routed absolutely nothing. The conclusion is that it does its job well and completely eliminates the forms of malware it detects.
Settings section is not as abundant in options as I expected but you get to make the application to scan your system at Windows startup and hide the application in system tray on close. Scanning as soon as you start your computer is certainly a very good option as if there is some little critter that sends information to a remote party, it'll root it out of your system.
In what concerns hiding the application in system tray on close, it's not too useful an option as there is not real time protection implemented and the scanning will still be made manually. So the result of enabling this action will only result in computer resource consumption just to have it opened really fast (launching it from a shortcut does not take significantly longer).
Languages implemented in the software include French, Greek, Italian, Russian and, of course, English. Not too many options in this case either, but they definitely cover the majority of users. In fact, considering the complexity of the software, you can handle it in any language for sure as the intuitive icons accompanying the buttons will tell you all about what's hiding under that option.
Help and Support tab shows you some basic internals of your system, meaning the OS your computer is running on, the location of Windows directory, CPU model, physical memory, BIOS version, and the local drivers.
The Good
Arovax AntiSpyware is reliable enough to keep it working together with another similar application. The easy to use interface and sending the nasties to Quarantine before eliminating them for good allows the user to take a look and select which of them are false positives and which are indeed a threat.
The scan can be customized in terms of location.
The Bad
All it could find on my computer were some 14 cookies. I keep my computer pretty tidy and I was really expecting that.
The Truth
Nice and free nasty remover. Every user can use it with no problems. My suggestion is to always take a look at the detected items, not for this software in particular, but for all of them. Also, use it in "competition" with a similar program for an improved accuracy of detection.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
