14 DAY TRIAL // I was talking yesterday about "this week's antispyware tool", but it seems I lied, so I must excuse myself. Anyway, I didn't do it on purpose, but I had to change my mind today when I encountered another virtual defender.
Today's antispyware program is called CyberDefender Internet Security, a new born that is currently labeled as being a 1.0 version. The version that I have here displays a lot of ads while running, and that's not such a good thing...but the installation kit has only 3.4MB, is very easy to setup and operating the program is a piece of cake. Let's find out more about the looks and the tools that we get with this, shall we?
After installing the program, it starts automatically to scan your system, which is good enough for me. Spares me from some additional mouse clicks...but let's check the interface before starting to dig in!
Only one word about the interface should say it all: excellent! The program's window has a menu with seven items that lead to the areas available for you, the icons are top-quality and the design looks up to date. The only bad part about the interface is the ads displayed...they simply don't fit in well, and sometimes have refresh problems, not to mention that they need a part of your bandwidth (for people still using dial up connections, this can be quite a problem).
The first of the seven screens that we have to check is called Scan and this is the place where you'll start each time you turn on this program. Here, you can check the scanning progress, summary and the current security settings, as well as access different links.
The Remove area has a self explaining name that says it all. If you didn't notice while checking the first screen, then find out now that the items scanned by the program are the memory, files, registry and cookies. If you want to get details about an item, just click on it and check the information that appears inside the panel located to the right of the window.
Next, you can check the Alerts about items changed inside your Windows and monitored by the program, while the Restore area allows restoration of deleted spyware items.
The Options area is well organized and using it is as easy as possible. All the settings that can be changed are one mouse click away, so everything here is joy and happiness!
The System area allows you to check your start up items and remove unwanted ones. Here can be found the allowed threats and always quarantined ones.
At last, there's the Update area that lets you check the current signature database and program versions and update them, of course. Now, let's check the conclusions about this useful antispyware tool...
The Good
CyberDefender is a good looking product, well designed and effective.
The Bad
There's only one big, bad, and ugly keyword to be used in this section: "adware".
The Truth
If you don't have a problem with programs that display ads and get focus from your active window when changing the ad (this only happens when you keep the main window open, not when the program runs minimized), then go for it! Anyway, you can try it, like it, and then pay 39.99$, but the ads will still not be removed...it's your choice!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
