The moment computer users have heard on the pain spyware can inflict to their wallets, they went crazy. I remember the time when 90% of computer users had an entire fleet of anti spyware tools installed on their computers. The majority of them were elaborate hoaxes, but you could find one or two brave spyware fighters in there. My point is that not everything that glows is gold and some protection tools do exactly the opposite of what they promise.
SuperAntiSpyware is definitely not a hoax as experienced users have performed tests on the application and it passed with flying colors. We did some testing of ourselves, just to see how accurate is the general opinion on this spyware fighter from SUPERAntiSpyware.com.
The $29.95 price is not to be easily overlooked considering that competition is fierce and the "adversaries" keep their prices a few bucks lower. The interface does not justify the dollars, but to be honest I do not really care about the looks of the fighter when my computer is infested. However, despite my personal opinions, most users see in the looks of the software a constant care of the developer for the software and this is not manifested in SuperAntiSpyware Professional except at the detection/elimination level.
A special feature sported by SuperAntiSpyware is the real-time protection that similar products seem to fall short of. Low on resources (about 40MB of RAM), the real time shield will prtect your computer against hijackers, trojans, spyware and other such malware. It can be enabled or disabled, according to users' wish. You can benefit from this protection immediately after installing the software as this is the first thing SuperAntiSpyware Professional will alert you about taking care of. Additionally, you can send reports containing potential malware or riskware for their laboratories to analyze and update the definitions.
The main menu is split into five distinct sections: computer scanning, scan scheduling, update checking, quarantine management and the configuration of the application. Scan section will scan your computer for spyware, adware, trojans, worms and other potentially harmful items that may reside on your machine.
There are three types of scans the user can perform. They are the basic options you encounter in the vast majority of such tools: Quick Scan (checks the running items, the known registry locations, and the most common places malware can reside in), Complete Scan (checks the running processes, registry locations and every file on the selected volumes)
and Custom Scan (allows slecting the computer areas you want to be verified (memory, registry, startup locations, cookies) and permits adding folders to be checked).
The scheduled scan is highly flexible and lets the user elect the scanning time interval, set the scan options (reboot computer if required, quarantine and remove infected items automatically, shut down computer when the verification is finished, update the definitions before the scan, etc.). you can set the day and the time SuperAntiSpyware Professional should perform the checking.
In the case the software detects false positives SuperAntiSpyware Professional provides the possibility of restoring the items individually. Of course, this is possible as long as the items are still in the Quarantine folder.
Preferences, or Control Center of the application comprises a set of six tabs, all supplying the necessary settings for optimum scanning and running. General and Startup is divided into several section aiming at configuring the way the software starts (with Windows and minimized to system tray), the way it looks (enable the Windows XP style menu), enabling startup scanning (Quick, Complete or Custom) and refreshing the definitions at every startup.
Scanning Control comes in very handy if you want fast and relevant searches. The options running down in this menu allows ignoring files larger then 4MB (letting the user decide the size of the file would be a plus in my opinion) or non-executables, scan only known types like .exe, .com or .dll, close the browsers before scanning, search for tracking cookies, terminate the memory threats before quarantining or using Kernel Direct File/Registry access. Additionally, you can manage the allowed items and the excluded folders (add the path to the folders you want to be skipped during the scan).
The rest of the menus available here are not as rich in options as the two mentioned above. However, you should know that you can configure the real-time protection and its notification methods (alert window or playing a sound), enable hi-jack protection and type in the home page for your browser (in case you want to change it).
SuperAntiSpyware Professional keeps tabs of everything that has been detected and removed from your computer. The logs can be accessed from Statistics/Logs section. They are date stamped and old ones can be easily removed. The information is enclosed in TXT files which is kind of shabby as anyone can perform modifications and give you a little trouble.
Repairs is the ultimate task to be performed. In case a malware succeeded in penetrating the real-tim protection and did some damage on your computer, this is the place you may want to try in order to fix the problem. The "repair shop" allows you to re-enable the system tray, Task Manager, reset the home page of your web browser, reset the Internet Zone Security, the URL prefixes, or the Winlogon Shell.
The GoodSuperAntiSpyware Professional does a hell of a job. During our testing it successfully detected and eliminated most of the nasties you put it up against.
Real-time protection is also a great benefit when it comes to malware and SuperAntiSpyware Professional includes it in the list of options.
Scanning a single file for spyware is possible due to the integration in the Windows shell.
The BadGenerally I should say something about the interface in this section, but I will not. I would rather talk about the fact that it is lagging behind CounterSpy from SunBelt and SpySweeper.
The TruthThe product is one of the most reliable anti-spyware tools on the market. It may not be the best, but it does its job very good and will definitely help you get rid of the different nasties on your computer.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
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