After PC Magazine gave its Editors’ Choice award to Webroot Software’s Spy Sweeper 2.2, I thought I might give this alternative a try.
I can sum up my experience in one word: Ugh.
Installation went smoothly enough. I had no trouble installing the program, which has a clean, easy-to-follow interface. Unlike PC Mag, though, I tested this software not on a test PC infested with viruses and other pests, but on my own system, on which I carefully control the software installed. I can say with confidence that my PC is spyware-free.
So imagine my shock when Spy Sweeper’s half-hour examination turned up 51 “traces” of spyware and adware. Ha! The majority of these offending bits of digital debris were simply cookies, many of them from innocuous sites like Travelocity, com.com (an alias for CNET and ironically, a close cousin of PC Magazine), and Pricegrabber.
More disturbing was the fact that Spy Sweeper identified a couple of perfectly legitimate programs as spyware. According to the sweep results, I was infested with a known adware program called BrowserAid. The file identified was actually a key part of TechSmith‘s excellent screen-capture utility, SnagIt. Spy Sweeper also told me my system had been taken over by something called Eacceleration. That also turned out to be wrong; the DLL that it found was actually the virus-scanning module from my CD/DVD burning program of choice, Nero 6 Ultra Edition.
Spy Sweeper also complained about SideStep, a wonderful Internet Explorer add-in that clearly identifies itself and has an admirable privacy policy. It is ludicrous to call SideStep adware or spyware.
If I had followed Spy Sweeper’s advice, I would have disabled at least three programs I rely on heavily. An unsophisticated user would have never figured out that Spy Sweeper was wrong and would probably have wiped out these innocent programs.
Ad-Aware 6 and Spybot S&D had no trouble keeping their mitts off my perfectly legitimate software. And both are free, in contrast to the $30 Spy Sweeper.
Security software that can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys isn’t worth paying for. It’s not even worth downloading for free. My advice: Stay away from Spy Sweeper.
Ed Bott 
Hi Ed: It’s me from Focus on Windows, if you remember ancient history :-).
Love the new site.
BUT COULD YOU MAKE THE FRAME WIDER?????
Hi Bill! Good to hear from you.
There’s a raging debate over the subject of fixed versus liquid designs. The design I chose here is optimized for 800 x 600 resolution, and it should look pretty good at 1024 x 768 with the Explorer bar visible. Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution from a design point of view!
Yesterday, I ran Spybot S&D–and it also wants to nuke SideStep.
I think you are being a tad harsh on spy sweeper. I too have had the program report BrowserAid (although I didnt realise it was from snagit). But the info that Spy Sweeper provides clearly states that it might be beneficial and suggests not deleting it.
I have used both spy sweeper and ad-aware 6 (free version) for some time and both seem to compliment each other.
Harsh? Well, you didn’t know it was from Snag-It. So the program says it might be beneficial? Great. What are you supposed to do? Delete it? Keep it? Research it?
For the amount of money that Spy Sweeper costs, it should answer those questions. And remember, it tried to remove three programs incorrectly for me.
Personally, I prefer Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware together. I don’t see that Spy Sweeper adds anything except a price tag.
JMHO.