14 DAY TRIAL // Spyware, backdoors, BHO, dialers, hijackers, key loggers, trojans, tracking cookies, worms, ANSI Bombs, AOL Pest, droppers, nukers etc. These are all malware that put your computer to risk. Defending against all of them can sometimes be extremely difficult. There are softwares that can protect us against these threats. And the Internet gives us a myriad of such applications, some of them are useful and others are useless.
Malware is used to steal the financial data, identity theft, generate frequent popup advertisements, redirect the homepage to unfamiliar websites, degrade your computer's performance, cause computer errors, browser crashes, etc.
On the Internet I found a software that brags to eliminate all these problems. The miracle software is called SpyNoMore and its developer is Illysoft. The price for ridding your machine by all this malware is $29.95. The free version of the application has some restrictions, but the most upsetting one is that you cannot remove the malware detected.
The interface of the software is pretty simple and you will not bother too much with understanding the available options. The menu is arranged vertically on the left side of the window. The main part of the application screen is called Scan Results and it will display the malware found on your machine.
At the bottom, there will be displayed the files that are currently subject to scanning. Let's take a ride inside the program to see exactly how intricate it is.
What differentiates this software from its competitors is the fact that it can remove a lot of malware. At least this is what the developer brags with. You will not know that until you buy the software, because its sole restriction will limit its efficiency to simply scanning the computer.
The first option provided in the interface is Start Scan. When the scan is in progress, this button will turn into Stop Scan. This will begin the process of checking your computer for all sorts of threats. Next button is Remove Spyware. We all know what it should do, but, unfortunately, I cannot test its efficiency.
Roll Back is just another name for Quarantine. It's a good thing that the software will not automatically delete the malware and will first send it to quarantine. If there is a misunderstanding on behalf of the software that wrongfully etiquettes a perfectly healthy file as being infected with malware, then you can correct the wrong by taking them out of there. I have to warn you that, once an item is in Roll Back, it cannot be launched anymore. This section of the software is also inaccessible as only the removed files are sent in here.
Custom Fix is an interesting feature of the software. By means of this option the user can send a report to the developer's server so that the team analyzes the infection that refuses to leave your computer. The developer says that the technical support team will issue a fix solution designed to correct the situation. Here you can send them a few words, enter the website URL that is disturbing you and your email address (although it is optional).
Active Protection menu will offer you information about the number of virus definitions your computer is protected of. At the moment of writing the review, my computer was "vaccinated" against 1363 known malware threats. An additional 1290 definitions are available, but they are only for the registered users.
The same thing happens if I try to prevent my system from accessing known malware sites. When I clicked the Status button I learned that 0 malware hosts were blocked and that 1019 hosts were available to block.
The Settings menu allows me to make some changes and I can even schedule the software to scan my computer every day at a certain hour. I can also set it to do a daily or weekly update check at a time specified by me.
The Good
The software can be minimized to tray. The scan allows the user to select the scan mode: Smart Scan or Full System Scan. The first one will take less time than the first one.
The Bad
I cannot remove a single malware and I cannot set the application to scan only some folders. I can only select the partitions on my computer.
The spyware database is not as large as I expected, but there is still time to make it bigger.
The Truth
Even if the software costs $5 I would not buy it because I do not know how efficient it is. I wish there was a trial period for you to fully test the software. All the other restrictions do nothing more than diminish its efficiency.
Practically, what you can do with the software is scan and schedule the updates and scanning.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
