Software Reviews: business and educational--Spybot - Search & Destroy for Spyware Protection

Cyber News and Reviews is a monthly column published since 1995 for parents, teachers and small business and home business owners offering articles on some of the best computer products available. I cover business software, education, entertainment with freeware and shareware, and some hardware too. Over the years, I've reviewed computer programs from Microsoft, Knowledge Adventure (Davidson) and others. When my kids were young, they couldn't wait for the software to arrive and have fun testing the games and lessons with me. And, in the past few years they've contributed some of their own reviews with opinions. The best advice on software is from the children who use it. Also, many of the business programs reviewed are useful for home business and small business owners. HB

Spybot - Search & Destroy for Spyware Protection

By Howard Berenbon

Now, with all the spyware floating around the Internet, everyone needs some type of software to check and remove those intrusive and nasty programs from our Windows-based systems. Besides slowing down our computers, they have no right to be there. One of the best programs available to remove spyware is the freeware Spybot - Search & Destroy from Patrick M. Kolla and Safe Networking Limited ( http://www.spybot.info/en/home/index.html donations are appreciated at http://www.spybot.info/en/donations/index.html). It's available from your favorite shareware and freeware download sites, or direct from the Safe Networking Limited link above.

Once you download and install this program, you'll wonder why you ever lived without it, because it works like a charm. You'll need a fast connection for download because it's over 2 megabytes, but once installed, it will clean your computer to perfection. And even if you do safe surfing (to sites you know well) you'll be surprised how many spyware applications are lurking in your machine. Using browsers like Mosilla Firefox can help protect your computer from spyware, but not everyone is aware of the safe browsers, and if you use Internet Explorer without spyware blocking utilities, you're very vulnerable to intrusion.

Spybot - Search & Destroy is simple to use. Run the program from its icon installed on your desktop, and you'll see a menu of things to do. Just click on Check for Problems and the search begins. This can take several minutes depending on what it finds in your computer. As it finds the spyware, each is listed in the problem box on your screen. Once completed, it lists the number of problems found and you'll have a chance to delete them. Click on "Fix selected problems" and you're on your way to a squeaky clean computer. Also, in the process, Spybot - Search & Destroy will create a system restore point (very good feature).

You also have the option to recover the files you deleted, immunize your computer from the common spyware and update the spyware database. One more button is very important, called Donations, because even though this is freeware, a very smart programmer is responsible for this clever design, and deserves to be compensated for his outstanding work.

This is a great program for anyone on the Internet, and it's a must to keep your computer safe. I highly recommended it to everyone.

Howard Berenbon

Software Companies Mentioned

Safe Networking Limited
46 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2
URL: http://www.spybot.info/en/home/index.html
Donations: http://www.spybot.info/en/donations/index.html

Business Software Reviewed & Educational Software Reviews since 1995 - Anti-spyware and virus detection and protection programs