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 - Webroot Spy SLEEPERI purchased SpySleeper to fix a recent infection in my computer. Although it detected and cleaned 2 trojans: trojan-fisher-bzub and trojan-downloader-zlob, SSleeper missed the trojan-spyware.webhancer. I had to use PC Doctor to detect and clean it. Now I am having to work with Webroot online tech support to clean a final infection that it missed, and it has taken 7 days of trivial pursuit and poorly written quick fixes to get them to look at a scan and (hopefully) come up with a fix. Phone tech support hold times are about 20 minutes as they are having to deal with significant Windows Vista compatibility problems with their product. Although this product has had a good reputation, it is now asleep at the wheel in many ways. If you are trying to fix an infection you would be better off doing a Windows reinstall than spending time and money on SSleeper. Read the PC World recent review on antispyware to confirm what I have posted (poor infection removal, last place in overall ranking.) 2/25/08 update: It took 3 weeks to remove all spyware with ssleeper thru tech support. I have removed ssleeper from my active startup programs and use it only to run occasional scans after updating it. I do not plan to do anything with my computer during ssleeper scans because it slows to nearly lockup speed when a scan is running. Also, after definition updates, ssleeper automatically opens a new browser window that advertises the webroot antivirus product (kind of like what adware does!) Pitty the poor people who do not read the more current reviews of this product before buying (amazon, your default should be to display most current reviews first.) Rating: - Had a good 4 year run...I used Spy Sweeper since 2003. Great product and never had any real issues with it until... V5. While it was excessive with resources and slowed considerably I continued to use it because it did its job and did it quite well... until version 5.5.7. After upgrading to 5.5.7 my desktop failed to appear after boot. Basically Spy Sweeper disabled my entire pc. I could only do a hard and lengthy reboot and the same thing happened. The desktop failed to appear, no functions were available. If by chance the desktop did appear, it locked up soon after. This behavior was consistent on 2 PCs and a laptop. I can't run the latest first person shooters on them but they are robust with 1G Ram (one with 2GB because I edit a ton of audio and video since I dabble in filmmaking). After opening a ticket and several exchanges with webroot it was suggested I call for phone support. After several tries and being left on hold for (realistically it was probably 20-25 minutes) but felt longer, I used a removal tool I received from webroot to remove 5.5.7 and reinstalled the older 5.3 Couple months later one subscription expired so I decided to remove Spy Sweeper from that PC. I tried using Windows and CCleaner to uninstall but it didn't work. I use the removal tool from Webroot and that worked. But on reboot, my PC locked up when any key on the keyboard is pressed. I try to reinstall from the CD and that doesn't work because I need to enter the key code and the keyboard locks up the entire PC. So I do a system restore to the previous day. Then I tried to install from the CD again but I get the same error message as when I tried to uninstall. The unins00 yada yada is missing. So to fix this, I log in using Safe Mode. I delete the Spy Sweeper files manually, one by one except for one that wouldn't delete. Then I deleted the registy entries. I rebooted and tried again to install from the disk. That worked. Then I uninstalled using the normal Spy Sweeper uninstaller and FINALLY, that worked and the software is removed from my system. I run CCleaner and remove the excess files and registy entries. After an extensive search I found a replacement for Spy Sweeper I'm happy with. I don't know what happened to it. It was an incredibly good product that appears to have gone really bad. I can only hope they fix the issues with Spy Sweeper and get it back to being the dependable, well oiled product it used to be. Rating:  - There is no "Silver Bullet"Welcome to the 21st Century, where your computer isn't safe from the wilds of the untamed internet. Since the dawn of the home computer there have been widespread threats, virus' were the first and for a long time the reigning champion of computer problems. However, about 5 years ago a new threat emerged that soon became its own breed of threat: Malware (Spyware/Adware/etc) Most Virus program will do little or nothing against Malware...after all they are just virus programs. There were geeks, such as myself, who wrote programs for free to help remove infections, Spybot, Adaware, and otherse. They do a good job. However, of all the programs I've used only Spy Sweeper does the best job at prevention and removal. However, I will admit that SS will miss stuff that the freebies/trial verions get, but it is by far the most comprehensive dectection and prevention program on the market. There is no "Silver Bullet" when it comes to computer security, but this sure makes a nice round in your arsenal. If you already have an infection, you will need this program and the other free ones to get rid of what you got (hint: run the scans in Windows "Safe Mode", you'll have a better chance at getting it all). If you have a clean PC, then SS will help prevent an infection from getting on. 4.5 Stars out of 5 Rating: - Stay Away from this new versionI was extremely happy with my previous version of Webroot's Spy Sweeper. At renewal time I upgraded to this new version. I purchased the family edition for 3 computers. So far I have had to remove the program from 2 of the 3 computers(all 3 were purchased within the last 3 years so these are all current processors with at least 512k of RAM and as much as 1gb. One of the computers that is having a problem has a completely new hard drive. Since installing Spy Sweeper, start up takes at least 5 times longer. When I remove Spy Sweeper from start up, the PC's are back to their speedy start up. This program is very hungry and takes up resources with an unending appetite. Big disappointment, Webroot should have left well enough alone. Use Spybot and MS, both free instead. Rating: - A resource hog, many errors, but....I purchased this product on a recommendation from PC World magazine. I don't think I made a good decision. This product has been a mistake from the first update. I loaded SpySweeper and the product immediately required an update. I don't mind that, one must stay ahead of all spyware, but the program really taxed my system's resources. I have 2GB, a AMD dual-core with four 160gb SATA hard drives, and it really slowed down my system. It also produced many Windows XP errors. I submitted the errors to Webroot for analysis and I even emailed technical support, but without much resolution. I decided to remove it and use Norton's Anti-Virus Suite instead. Maybe your experience would be better, but I cannot recommend this product. Now after saying all this, there was absolutely no spyware able to stay on my system when this product worked, but again, the performance of the product in other areas makes this experience unfortunate.
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