Review: PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 5

Keep your PC safe from virus attacks as well as spyware

Price: $39.95 (approx £20)

Manufacturer: PC Tools

System requirements

Ratings

Overall rating:

Features:

Ease of use:

Value for money:

Rate this product

Verdict

Pros: Fast scans; simple interface
Cons: Not a complete security suite; no offline help file
Overall: Very good protection against all forms of malware

Tim Smith, Personal Computer World 15 Jun 2007

With the proliferation of spyware online, the line between it and viruses is becoming increasingly blurred.

With this in mind, it makes sense to combine protection for both into one program such as PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 5.

Installation is simple and includes a search for updates, which is essential with the many new versions of spyware that appear.

The main buttons access a system scan and also provide a quick way to turn off the Computer Immunisation and OnGuard Protection features - sensibly, they only stay switched off for 15 minutes by default, which is about enough time to install most applications.

The Computer Immunisation option protects against malicious ActiveX objects, but the OnGuard protection is a little wider ranging. The Browser Guard prevents changes to your internet favourites list and the home page, as well as toolbars, add-ons and the plug-in trusted sites list.

One interesting tool is the Keylogger Guard; this detects suspicious behaviour rather than relying entirely on a list of known programs. The Windows Hosts file is also monitored to prevent malicious changes.

The computer that was used for testing had not previously had spyware protection, although antivirus software was installed. The first scan picked up several high risk infections as well as the expected tracking and advertising cookies. The Trojans Danmec.c and JS.DL.Small.GCP were found as well as the virus JS.Psyme.DD.Gen.

The status screen is clean with all the important information presented clearly - this includes information about the version of both the software and the malware database, although a date stamp would also be helpful. Our version proudly stated it had over 440,000 signatures in the database.

One frustration is that the help file is not held locally and can only be accessed online, which isn't great if you're trying to remove infection offline to prevent it spreading.

PC Tools says the scanning engine in this new version is their fastest ever, with shorter scanning times even though the database of known programs has grown significantly.

This is helped further by Intelligent Scan options, which looks in folders that are likely to have seen the most activity, ignoring those that are rarely used. A full scan is recommended on a weekly basis.

On a relatively new test system the Intellligent Scan completed in less than five minutes with a rather alarming klaxon noise signifying that infections had been found. These were all tracking and advertising cookies (an older system had more infections as mentioned above). Whether cookies really count as infections is a matter of opinion, but it is good that Spyware Doctor can distinguish between the two kinds.

It is not possible to leave individual cookies, a rule must be created separately for the site in the Global Action List. This section allows specific websites to leave cookies on the computer; it can also be used to block particular sites.

Spyware Doctor can also create a system restore point before making any changes to the computer. It does warn that removing some items from the computer may go against the EULA of some software, which may subsequently prevent it from working in the future, so being able to cancel all changes is a useful feature.

The lack of a firewall prevents it from being a complete security suite, but PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 5 offers solid protection from a wide variety of threats, including spyware, with some sensible customisation options to save time.

See also: