SUPERAntiSpyware Review (Windows)
Written by John Thompson on August 2, 2010 · Filed under Review, Software
Security in Microsoft’s operating system is getting better with each update, what with the introduction of the likes of Windows Security Essentials, but despite all the improvements that have been made since the virus-ridden days of Windows XP, there are still security holes being exploited every minute through your web browser, files you download, and other activities.
If you’re looking for a program to combat the spyware on your system, you may want to take a look at SUPERAntiSpyware, which promises to be light on system resources, ensuring that your system isn’t slowed down by scans or background processes.
Installation
The installation process of SUPERAntiSpyware was really simple. After a small download, the program was installed in under a minute, with various choices given to the user during the install.
You’re prompted to choose whether your web browser’s home page is protected too, but it appears that this is only the case with Internet Explorer, as my home page was displayed as MSN, not Google as it is on my Chrome browser.
When you start the program for the first time, you’re also prompted to update your database and definitions, so you’re up to date and protected from the latest threats.
User Interface
The user interface of SUPERAntiSpyware is really simple, and makes it easy to use. The main screen contains links to all aspects of the program, providing easy access to scans, schedules, updates, quarantine and your preferences. Here, you can also see when your last scan took place.
Scanning
When you select to do a system scan, you have the choice of either a quick scan, full scan or custom scan. Although a quick scan will scan the places that any malware is most likely to hide, it’s probably a good idea to schedule a full scan once a week when you’re not using your computer, in the middle of the night for example.
When I was conducting a scan using SUPERAntiSpyware for the first time, I didn’t have incredibly high hopes. To see how accurate it was when scanning files, I conducted a quick scan using Norton 4.0 first to compare the results.
The quick scan using SAS took a similar amount of time to Norton 360 V4.0‘s scan, taking just under 20 minutes complete, which isn’t at all bad. Both scanners used little system resources, although I was particularly impressed to see that SAS barely registered on CPU usage even during the scan, and took up very little memory too. The scan was conducted using a machine with a 1.6GHz Atom CPU (overclocked to 2.1GHz), and 2GB RAM.
Of course, it doesn’t matter how quick or light on resources the application is if it can’t identify threats. I had mixed feelings when I saw that SAS found the same trojan virus that Norton reported on the earlier scan (good job it’s my less used machine!).
As well as the trojan, which I was surprised it found being a spyware application, it also found some adware and other malware on my machine too. All threats were removed without issue, and I was impressed at the efficiency of the application.
Conclusion
I found SUPERAntiSpyware to be a very capable application, although there’s nothing there that sets it out from the mass of competition on the market. Still, if you’re looking for a spyware scanner, you can purchase it for $29.95, which is around £19.45 at the time of writing.
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