Product Reviews

Software designed to clean your hard disk of the files that build up as a result of surfing the web are commonplace; we reviewed one of them, Webroot's Windows Washer, here last month. Spy Sweeper from the same publisher provides a less commonly encountered facility - the elimination of spyware and similar malicious programs.

Spy Sweeper protects computer users from four types of software that can be found on PCs. The first is adware - software that is used for advertising. Typically, it installs alongside free software that you've downloaded from the web, and manifests itself as a pop-up window that appears apparently at random. This isn't to be confused with the pop-ups that are associated with particular web pages - Spy Sweeper doesn't prevent these pop-ups. The second type is system monitor utilities. These may appear on your system as a result of installing free software or even just from surfing the web. They collect and divulge information about the websites you visit and the way you use your PC. The third type of software is the Trojan - software that can perform malicious tasks

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such as destroying data or dialing premium-rate telephone numbers. Fourth, there are cookies. These store information so a web page can recognise you as a previous visitor. They can be useful but they raise privacy issues.

Spy Sweeper scans your hard disk - either according to a schedule or when you instruct it to - looking for these four types of software. When it finds them you can choose to leave them in place, quarantine them (make them inactive) or remove them completely. Spy Sweeper can also be configured to detect certain types of file as they're written to your disk and remove them immediately. If you configure it for on-the-fly protection, it sits in the background, clicking occasionally to indicate that it has prevented something loading from the web.

Although few other programs provide this combination of functions, there are utilities that protect you against all these threats. Most good anti-virus packages, for example, will provide protection from Trojans, and most disk-cleaning packages handle cookies. It's the detection and removal of adware and spyware that is Spy Sweeper's main selling point, but even here you can get a level of protection from free alternatives such as Ad-aware.

If you're concerned about adware, spyware, Trojans and cookies, Spy Sweeper is exactly what you need. However, it could be argued that Trojans are the only malicious programs with the potential for causing real damage, and that if you have a good anti-virus package you're already protected. Whether or not it's worth paying £30 for the combined protection Spy Sweeper provides is very much a personal question - it depends how concerned you are about privacy.