PC Tools - Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 6 review
protect against infection and online threats
Review date: 23 October, 2008. Review by: Paul Lester
If you're happy to use the Windows firewall, a hardware firewall or have a dedicated solution of your own, the software has all that's needed to shore up the remaining holes in your system security.
Installation is straightforward but those with slower connections may be in for a bit of a wait as Spyware Doctor requires you to update definitions using the Smart Update tool before it boots for the first time, and some of these are quite large in size.
The interface splits the software into a general status page (reporting the current version and recent scan details), a scan control page and the IntelliGuard settings. You have a choice of an intelli-scan, full scan and a custom scan if you want to focus on specific files and folders.
The process is pretty fast compared to similar tools and we were particularly impressed by how comprehensive the intelli-scan mode was at picking up suspect files and data stored or running on our machine.
The IntelliGuard protection is basically a collection of tools that help protect your browser, e-mail and files and contains a cookie guard plus keylogger and process protection to help prevent malicious processes from affecting your machine.
We can't see any reason why people would want to turn any of these off, though the limited set of options available with each usually consists of a simple enable/disable button, while in some cases you can view the history of the component to see what effect it has had on your machine.
There isn't a lot else to the software and the additional tools and settings are quite basic, though there is a scheduler and ‘global action list' for creating rules to automatically block or allow specific files or websites.
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Verdict
There doesn't appear to be a lot to Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus but it's fast and easy to use and is unobtrusive in terms of requesting user input. It's also quite light on resources and, considering the comprehensive nature of the scanner, we believe it to be one of the best security tools of its type around. Our biggest problem is the fact that for a little extra money you can get a comprehensive all-in-one suite and, for a well-integrated solution, we'd recommend that as being the better option. (!externallinkstart=www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/?ref=itreviews&utm_source=itreviews&utm_medium=ctm&utm_campaign=ctm_sd)Buy Direct from The PC Tools Website(!externallinkend)
Company: PC Tools
Contact: 01752 895100
