Uniblue’s SpyEraser 2

General

Uniblue’s SpyEraser 2



Reviewer's Rating of Uniblue’s SpyEraser 2: 4½ out of 5

Overview:

Uniblue’s SpyEraser 2 is one of several anti-spyware programs on the market today. Whichever one you choose, it’s critical to have at least one anti-spyware program on your computer running all the time. But – unlike many anti-virus programs – you can have more than one anti-spyware program on your computer at any given time. Windows Defender is a definite must-have, as are the other two free anti-spyware programs such as AdAware and Spybot. “So why then should I have another anti-spyware program running?” you might ask. Quite simply, there are so many spyware writers out there that expecting any single anti-spyware program to catch every single nasty bug is very unlikely.

SpyEraser 2 is a good option for anyone wanting to add to their germ fightin‘ arsenal. It has deservedly won several awards and is very reasonably priced at around $30 bucks. Sure, there are the free options out there, as mentioned earlier. And while free might be nice, the trend with most of the free applications is they offer better performing paid versions as upgrades, anyway. So in the end, SpyEraser 2 does what the paid versions of the other guys do.

Uniblue, though, does one thing I find quite annoying. In the overview pane, it has a DOD style security warning reading Medium. With the reviewed version of SpyEraser 2, it offered an upgrade for “Power Suite” which consists of RegistryBooster 2, and SpeedUpMyPC 3.0. The insinuation here is that you are not 100-per-cent safe without the other two programs. I tend to be leery of Registry altering programs regardless, as well as programs that say that they can improve your computer through software. But let’s look at what makes SpyEraser 2 a good bet.

Pros of SpyEraser 2:

It has a fairly simple interface.
SpyEraser 2It does a lot of the work for you. It’s quite attractive, with an Apple-style sheen to all the buttons. Disabling and enabling its options is a simple point-and-click affair. The interface is logically arranged, and easy to navigate. The ‘Real Time Scanner’ on the taskbar is very low-impact. The Quick Scan took a very respectable 20 minutes to sort through nearly 260GB of data. The Deep Scan took a lot longer, nearly two hours for it to complete checking the rest of the files. One thing I found very interesting was the program’s ability to block access to critical areas of your computer. By clicking on the Settings tab and going to restrictions, you can disable access to the Registry Editor, Control Panel, Task Manager, Taskbar Menus. These go a long way to keeping busy little fingers out of your computer’s most sensitive settings. This is where SpyEraser 2 excels; it is very easy to configure the program to be as powerful or as innocuous as you want it to be.

Cons of SpyEraser 2:

It’s really just a minor gripe. I really dislike the idea of shelling out money for a product only to find out I didn’t get the whole deal up front. Using a ‘Terror Alert’ style graphic and telling me that my security level is only ‘Medium’ is just plain silly. It further annoys the user by having the “Enable Power Suite” button on every single page. That might work for the free apps, but not here. You paid for this program, didn’t you? It’s like buying a car, and finding out that the seats and windshield wipers are optional upgrades. Then again, the programs it wants you to buy are not any of the sort I’d like on my machine, anyway. So it’s more of an annoyance than a real problem.

Another minor concern is that some advanced options are almost too easy to set. That may seem like an oxymoron, but these settings may confuse novice users when all of the sudden they can’t access areas of their computer to make changes. Mind you, those settings are off by default, and fairly clearly indicated as to what they do. But it’s still a good idea to bury some of those settings just a little bit deeper so that they don’t get turned on by accident.

Comments:

I hadn’t heard of Uniblue’s SpyEraser 2 until recently, but it now has a permanent place on my taskbar. It’s fast, attractive, easy to use, and does exactly what it’s there to do: keep your system clean. For a cool 30 bucks, it’s a sound investment.

Price: $29.95 US via Internet download.

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