Derek's Reviews: XoftSpy by ParetoLogic

XoftSpy by ParetoLogic

Spyware, Adware, Malware are all programs that are downloaded to your computer usually without your knowledge or consent and they're sometimes even hidden in software you buy in the high street. The programs then work away on your P.C in the background which at best, sends out details of your browsing habits and at worst, your credit card details and passwords to criminals. It is also a fact that it is rare to find a computer that isn’t infected with some form of spyware. And what’s worse again, is that the creators of these programs are constantly finding more and more sophisticated ways to conceal their programs in the hard drive and are making them harder to remove.

XoftSpy by ParetoLogic is a very effective tool on the war against spyware and adware that nearly every computer connected to the Internet picks up today – a recent survey suggested that around 98% of home computers are infected with Spyware and Adware that most anti-virus programs don’t pick up.

ParetoLogic claims that XoftSpy 4.21 claim to be the Latest and Most Advanced Spyware Detection and Removal application on the Internet and will will prevent anyone from "spying" on your Internet activites. And I believe them because after downloading and scanning my hard drive, the software picked up around 10 spyware programs that my other anti-spyware programs failed to detect. So investing the $40 for the licence was, in my opinion worth every cent.

XoftSpy is very easy to use. On opening the program, you see a window with various options down the left hand side, the first of which is Start. When this is clicked, the program scans through your drive, listing any rogue spyware together with a descriptions of its severity. This takes several minutes, depending on how full your drive is, but once it is finished, you can click delete where they will be put into a “quarantine folder” and can then either be restored, or deleted permanently. The ones you might restore may be the “minor” cookies that helps re-visited web pages load faster, that you know about. I tend to leave them in quarantine for a while and when I see that browsing works just as well, I permanently delete them.

Another helpful function with the program is that you can schedule scanning at a regular day/time and it will scan for you automatically.

So how do you know if your machine if infected?
One of the first signs I noticed was that my computer was taking longer to boot and programs were slow load and sluggish in operation and in some cases, it would crash for no reason. And this was even with my anti-virus software fully up to date – I know this to be true because it is set to update automatically every day.

Email Precautions:
I also take precautions with e-mail downloads. I never open an attachment unless I know it is being sent from somebody I know. In fact I have a “message rule” operating in Outlook Express to put any e-mails that have attachments into the trash.

To do this, at the top of the Main Outlook Express Window, click on Tools, then Message Rules, then Mail.

In that window click New and then in the top half of that window check the box where it says, where the message has an attachment and then check the box in the lower window that says, delete it. All messages with attachments will then go into the Deleted items folder where you don’t even have to touch them – Quite often, before I knew of this rule, just passing the mouse over an infected email with an attachment infected my computer with a nasty worm virus. Now I can simply right click on the Deleted Items Folder without touching it’s contents and selecting Empty Deleted Items Folder. And also, if I know the attachment is OK because it has come from a trusted source, I can move it to another folder and open it safely.

Thanks for reading.