STOPzilla is an award-winning anti-spyware which has been applauded by the computer community across the world for creating new benchmarks in computer security and for killing all types of malware. It is a sleek desktop application that has the ability to identify, block, as well as quarantine all kinds of spyware, adware, and other rogue programs that may attempt to intrude your system. At the time of writing this review, STOPzilla had been used by over 15 million computer users across 60 countries.
STOPzilla anti-spyware was developed by iS3 (International Software Systems Solutions, Inc), a Florida based IT company that was founded in 1991. The company has been focusing on creating a safer and superior web environment since 2001. Their continuous efforts to achieve these objectives have culminated into a range of world class security products that are backed by absolutely free and efficient customer service.
Spyware – A Threat Analysis
Spyware, as the name suggests, is any piece of software that secretly installs itself on your computer without your knowledge and then gathers information about your activities. It is a common misconception among users that most spyware only spy. In reality, their objective is much more than simple monitoring and usually includes one of the following goals:
- Steal Personal Information and Identity
- Interfere in your computer control
- Sabotage your web browsing activity
- Force you to view advertisements
- Change settings of your computer
- Cause frequent computer errors and slow it down
It has been found that spyware are rarely found alone on a system. This means that if your computer has been affected, it is quite likely that it has been infected by several spying software, each trying to harm your computer in a different way. While many times, a computer user may suspect that there is malicious software present due to unwanted activity or deterioration of PC performance, there are some advanced spyware that cleverly avoid being detected and cause enormous damage.
While the first spyware may have originated as a prank, it has evolved into one of the most serious threats to computer users that cause losses amounting to billions of dollars every year. Spyware today are so advanced that they can not only easily disable firewall and anti-virus software, but some of them even pose as anti-spyware to enter your system.
In order to counter and neutralize this potential threat, it is absolutely crucial for every computer to have the latest version of a reliable anti-spyware installed on it. This is important because online criminals unleash hundreds of new spyware every day and an outdated anti-spyware may not be able to recognize them.
In order to ascertain whether STOPzilla is an antispyware that you can rely on, here is a comprehensive review of the software:
STOPzilla Installation:
The installation process is usually the step where first impressions of any computer application are formed. Downloading and installing STOPzilla from the company’s official website is simple as well as easy. We clicked on the download button and the application was promptly saved on our computer. Next, we received a confirmation message asking whether we would like to run it. As soon as we did that, the STOPzilla Setup Wizard appeared and helped us complete installation. There were no unnecessary pop-ups, no unpleasant surprises, and no interference with existing security applications our computer was running.
System Requirements
What’s more, it also occupied very little computer resources and did not burden system memory while running. All you require to run this application on your system is:
- Windows 7, 2000 / XP / Vista Windows 98, ME
- IE 6.0 or higher
- Processor speed of 200MHz or higher
STOPzilla – How It Works
One of the best things about STOPzilla is that it almost works on its own. As soon as the installation is complete, the tool performs fours tasks on your system:
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Starts the STOPzilla service.
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Checks for the latest updates and then downloads as well as installs them. Once the updates are installed, you need to restart the PC.
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Activates real time protection when the PC restarts – a feature that ensures that no malware infiltrates your system.
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Launches a spyware scan.
We ran this scan on a 2 year old Dell Inspiron Laptop running Windows Vista. The tool reported 426 infections. The tool also reported a High Risk Trojan, and Gen Trojan Installer, which it took just a few seconds to get rid of.
Note: Although it is possible to scan your system, it is not possible to remove the infections without registering STOPzilla. Therefore, after the scan is complete, click the REGISTER button on the left to first register the software before proceeding with the cleanup.
So, after just a couple of hours using StopZilla we have already updated the tool, gotten rid of hundreds of malware, and enabled real time protection. Let’s now see what else you can do after these initial steps are done. We will start with a look at some of the different screens of the tool.
The HOME Screen
The HOME screen is well-designed and you know what you can do with the tool just by giving it a look. The START SCAN NOW button is green, quite long and located in the top center of the HOME screen; quite hard to miss. So, if you are looking to run the scan, just click this button to start the process.
This screen also has three additional buttons—also quite big—that enable you to quickly turn OFF or ON, three features – Spyware protection, Pop-up protection, and SITEguard protection. These buttons come in handy when you want to temporarily turn off a feature to perform some task that interferes with the working of the spyware scan or vice versa.
The two Quick tools located below these buttons enable you to quickly clean thecookies and history. On the right hand side of the screen, you will find some check boxes that will enable you to perform some quick settings of the tool. Below it you will be able to check the status of the application and also hit the update button to quickly update the product and the definition set.
The left side of the screen has a menu that gives access to other screens of the tool. Let’s now have a look at these.
The SCAN FOR SPYWARE Screen
From here you can choose to perform four types of scans:
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The Quick Scan – This scan quickly checks all processes, Internet cache, cookies, drivers and services for spyware infection.
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The Intelligent Scan – In addition to what the Quick scan does, the Intelligent scan also scans other areas of the computer that can be affected by spyware. These include: all known malicious files, the Windows registry, Recycle Bin, environment variables, COM classes and uninstall entries
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The Full Scan – Like the name suggests this performs a deep scan of the entire system to weed out any malware residing on it. Although this takes the longest time of all the scans, it is recommended that you perform a full system scan at least once a week.
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The Custom Scan – If there is any specific area of your PC that you would like to scan, you may use this option.
The REAL-TIME PROTECTION Screen
This screen comprises four tabs and each enables you to perform various tasks.
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Active Enforcers – These form the core of STOPzilla. They monitor different resources on your computer to make sure that it is not compromised by malware. Any detected malicious program is blocked and then quarantined until you go through the list and decide the action you want to take with them. There are five enforcer classes. These are: Browser (IE) Enforcers, System Enforcers, Run-Time Enforcers, Network Enforcers, and Auto Start Enforcers.
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Settings – On this tab, you can configure how you want the Spyware scanner to work and what actions STOPzilla should take when an infection is detected. Here you can configure – Infection Response, Scanner Settings, Detection Settings, and Quarantined Element Purging.
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Quarantine – This tab lists the infections that are quarantined. You may go through this list and decide to selectively delete or restore them.
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Summary – On this tab, you can turn the Real-Time Spyware protection ON or OFF. Unless this is interfering with some activity you are doing, this feature should always stay enabled. This screen also shows the status of all five enforcers. You can click the Configure link to customize these enforcers.
You can also click the View Infections button at the top of the screen to quickly see the infection detected on the system
The POP-UP PROTECTION Screen
On the Summary screen of POP-UP PROTECTION, you can enable or disable Pop-up Protection and also click the Open Black List button to view a list of all pop-ups that STOPzilla has blocked.
On the Block|Allow tab, you can add a URL that you want to block, edit an existing URL or remove a blocked URL from the list.
The SCHEDULER Screen
The SCHEDULER screen comprises three tabs –
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The Scan tab enables you to schedule spyware scans on the PC. It is recommended that you configure daily Quick or Intelligent scans and a weekly Full System scan to keep your PC protected and free from malware.
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The Definitions tab enables you to set the time and way you want STOPzilla to update its definition set. You can choose between automatic and manual updates. You can also set STOPzilla to check for and download updates at specific times. This helps you set the update to take place at the times when you are not using your system.
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The Version tab enables you to set when you want the tools to look for and perform version updates.
The TOOLS Screen
Here you can click the:
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View Event Log button to see a list of different actions performed by STOPzilla along with their date and time. This information is quite useful when you are troubleshooting a problem and also to keep track of what tasks the tool is performing on your system.
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Start Diagnostic Scan button only when a STOPzilla Customer Support technician asks you to do so. This is usually done when there is a reason that leads you to believe a particular malware infection is not detected or blocked by STOPzilla. Again, this should be done only when asked by a STOPzilla Customer Support technician and you should avoid it under any other circumstances.
STOPzilla: Pros and Cons
After reviewing the functioning of STOPzilla antispyware, it is time to analyze its strength and weaknesses.
The First Look
The interface of STOPzilla reinforces the philosophy that most premier software manufacturers adhere to—keeping it simple. Every thing is clearly spelled out on the interface screen and it puts users at ease immediately. All the main options are organized meticulously and are just one click away. The look is clean and confident and that is conveyed to the user as reassurance that they are now going to be totally safe from malware.
The Best Features
While there are several fantastic features that STOPzilla antispyware come loaded with, the ones that really make it stand out are:
True Real Time Protection technology: This is a trademark technology of STOPzilla that enables it to identify, block, and then quarantine potential threatening spyware. This includes not only known, but also any other suspicious looking software that is attempting to penetrate your computer’s security. This technology protects your computer from the moment it is switched ON, making sure your computer is never at risk.
Pop-up Blocker: STOPzilla has the reputation of having the most advanced pop-up blocking tool and it has lived up to its reputation. We tried accessing dubious websites and all the pop-up advertisements were promptly intercepted and blocked. At the same time, it was able to easily distinguish between the dubious pop-ups and the legitimate ones. This feature is usually lacking in most basic pop-up blockers.
SITEguard: This is a very useful database of potentially harmful websites that are known to indulge in activities like stealing identities and delivering adware. SITEguard effectively protects you from visiting these websites even if you unknowingly click a seemingly harmless link. This database can be updated to ensure 100% protection.
Support Service: We were pleasantly surprised by the frequency of automatic updates sent by the research time of STOPzilla. This enhanced our confidence that our system was totally safe and that its security will never be compromised. We thoroughly tested the customer support service on all the three options that were available: chat, email, and toll-free phone call. It was a pleasure to receive detailed answers to all our queries every time we asked for assistance.
The Weaknesses
Our test computer has been performing as good as new since we installed STOPzilla anti-spyware on it. Therefore, there is not much to complain about this software.
However, if we were to point out a weakness, it would be the amount of time it takes to perform a complete scan of the system. However, this is a small price to pay in order to ensure complete protection against spyware.
Conclusion
After a thorough analysis of different features offered by this software, we have no doubt that STOPzilla is an efficient and robust anti-spyware tool that can effectively combat all kinds of potential threats originating from spyware and adware. The software offers a great value for the money and is therefore one of our recommended anti-spyware tools.
