Adware Report: Spyware Begone Review

Product: Spyware Begone Price: $39.95 Company Info: Microsmarts, LLC Editor Rating: 1 star Download Spyware Begone

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Pros

+ simple user interface

Cons

- Aggressive marketing and upsell tactics
- Below average effectiveness
- Lacks a scheduler and other standard features
- High price

Spyware Begone Product Review

Spyware Begone is an aggressively marketed spyware removal product that delivers below average protection at a high price.

Installation

Spyware Begone installed easily on both of our test PCs. After installing the first time, we were prompted to download and install an updated version, which also worked well.

Usability

Overall, Spyware Begone is easy to use. Our major complaints are directed at the cluttered and gimmicky interface, as well as some usability problems such as hard-to-find buttons that may cause problems for people with poor vision.

Scanning on our Windows 2000 test computer took 14 minutes. The scan results window feels cluttered and complex. It does not group the results by name, nor does it provide any detailed information about the spyware it found.

Removal

We ran Spyware Begone on two infected PCs running a variety of common applications. Overall, it detected 63% and disabled 46% of the spyware on our system. We didn't notice any false positives in the scan results with the registered version. Unfortunately, some of the more severe spyware, such as CoolWebSearch, was left intact and our computers still ran sluggishly after two full scans and a reboot.

Rollback

Spyware Begone does not have quarantine and rollback functionality. This can cause other programs to stop working should you accidentally delete a required file.

Other

Spyware Begone lacks features which have become standard these days in most other products, such as a scheduler and memory-resident shields. It does include a rudimentary homepage shield but that's about it.

What bothers us the most about Spyware Begone is the overly aggressive marketing tactics that the company engages in. For instance, the company offers free software if you "buy within 3 minutes". The free software includes a pop-up protector and a privacy program. While the company bills this as a $199 value, in truth, these are both commodity (ie: free) products these days. Furthermore, during our first program update, we were redirected to a website that sells PC accelerator software.

Summary

Spyware Begone offers below average protection against spyware and few additional features at a relatively high price. We also found the company's use of aggressive marketing tactics to be a bit over the top.

Purchase Price: $39.95

Free Trial: Yes

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