How is CounterSpy V2?

Intrusive ? I don't find it intrusive at all.

But if the program detects something that might be wrong, you can get a prompt, for example, updating security certificates (Microsoft non-critical updates) caused the program to ask me if wanted to allow changes in security zones, or something like that. Depending on whatever you use, you may get some pop-ups, but if you choose 'allow' and 'remember' you should get the question only once. At some times, (like when you're installing windows updates, and you're sure it's the real thing) it's just better to temporarily deactivate the active protection.

It has a whitelist, but it's not complete. I had to tell Counterspy that the software for my printer is ok !

If you don't forget to tick the 'remember' box, you'll get very few prompts after some time.

 

I found it to be about the same as ZoneAlarm for "intrusiveness", which is to say, not very intrusive. Much less so than, say, Vista UAC.

 

I'm sorry I didn't mean I thought it was intrusive. I just wondered how much the alerts increase with CS set on paranoid mode. I like this program, and I believe it may offer more protection than Spy Sweeper does. Do ether of you two know where the allow and remember alerts are listed? I saw a place for has been blocked, but nothing for what has been allowed. Thanks.

 

I only ran CounterSpy V2 in paranoid mode during my short trial, so there was no increase in my experience.

 

Thanks AKAJohnDoe. And who else are you as? LOL. I'm AKA wordward. LOL.

 

Place for 'allowed' ? I don't think there is one. The only way to 'whitelist' something is to click on 'allow' and 'remember' if you are prompted.

 

Do you mean this?

 

On my goodness. I can't believe I didn't even notice those headings. LOL. All well, now I do. LOL. Thanks TopperID. I like what I see so far with CS, and I think at the same cost as SuperAntiSpyware it may be a little better program at this point for Real Time protection. What do you think?

 

If a program does not appear on the above list it will not be permitted to run (unless you allow it via a pop-up). Thus a trojan executable could not execute if you did not allow it to do so.

Similarly, if you do allow it to execute, the trojan could not make changes to those parts of the system protected by CS unless you allowed those changes.

So quite apart from other considerations, you have these two levels of chances to protect yourself. SAS does not have this type of protection and will only act where it recognises malicious behaviour or a malicious program. For that reason I prefer CS - as well as because of the system tools and other features.

SAS scores when trying to clean a heavily infected system. In the unlikely event that you have such a system you can always D/L SAS to help you. Other than that, I see no virtue in having SAS installed for pointless demand scans that are never going to find anything, because your system is kept clean anyway.

Of course, if you had HIPS progs running that duplicated CS's execution protection, you may prefer the approach offered by SAS. However if you did run those types of program, you probably would not feel the need to run real time AS progs in the first place.

As a footnote - I'm not sure how CS would react where for example a .dll module became loaded into a legitimate program thus exploiting it. A full blown HIPS would give a measure of execution protection in these cases, but CS would need to rely on other aspects of its protection.

 

Thanks !

 

This is good to know as I'm not sure an AS is even needed with Firefox and something like the "free" ThreatFire program running. Remember though that SAS Professional offers a lifetime license for the same price that CounterSpy does for only one year. I guess it makes sense though, to use the superior product. I know CS certainly looks the more polished of the two, and Sunbelt has been improving on it. However, SAS seems dedicated and works hard to put out a good product. I think however, since none of my On Demand scans with any AS scans ever find anything either, it may just make more sense to use some of the free security software's available and common sense. My wife and my son use only Avast behind a router firewall and never get infected. Well actually my son did recently because he downloaded a program that had malware in it, but SAS Free cleaned it all up. Now that i have used CounterSpy though, the Trial Pay offer to obtain a free 1 year license for it is tempting. I think it is a really nice program from it's GUI to its System Tray Icon. Then again some other free security program offer will most likely come along like Spy Sweeper and ZoneAlarm Anti-spyware did, or more recently like Mamutu did on GAOD, soooo.

 

Well I did it. I just paid for my first security software program ever, kind of. I got Counterspy free with the Trial Pay offer. I signed up for a BlockBuster Online Movie Rental Plan so technically it wasn't free, but after using the 15 day CounterSpy trial and reading different reviews, I just had to have it. I like it better than any other Antispyware program I have used, which has been many, and by now paying out money I know I will keep it. I actually have been wanting to sign up for a BB movie account anyway and can cancel it anytime I want so what the heck. I don't really think I need an AS app, but I really do think CS is the best one out today.


http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3688_7-6812013-1.html?tag=nl.e501

 

In that same review they recommend windows defender because it is free. It's ranked second even though it detected only half of their samples and couldn't even remove it properly.

 

I know these reviews can usually be taken with a grain of salt, but it did detect all the samples used. I really think this is a top notch program and for 19.99 it's not a bad deal. Look how much SpySweeper costs, and I believe CounterSpy is the better all around program and runs much lighter. I like SuperAntiSpyware a lot too, and the Life Time license is hard to beat. However after using them both. I think CounterSpy looks much more polished with the nicer GUI and System Tray Icon. Whether or not it is the better program for On Demand detection and RealTime protection can be debated, but until someone tests them both together, I'll lean toward CS.

 

I have tested them and found SAS to be the better one when it came down to stability,system performence and cleaning ability. CS had a slightly higher detection. This was too long ago so take it with a grain of salt. Ill take a better program over looks anytime. Both have good support and are cheap!

 

Is anyone running CounterSpy v2 alongside Prevx 2.0 or Mamutu 1.5? Smooth? Slow?

I'm wondering if the behavioral components of CS's engine conflict with either of the other two.

-MarkW

 

Hello MarkW. I'm running CounterSpy with Mamutu and AVG 7.5 Pro. Everything seems to be running well. I like CS a lot and am planning on using Online Armor Personal with it soon. Take care.

 

Ok I have to admit on my PC with an older Pentium 4 processor, CS slows it down some. At first I thought it might be because of Mamutu, but it's not. I just got my 1 year license today and now I'm afraid I can't use it. If anyone is interested I'd be willing to trade it for something else. It's a great program and I liked it better than Spy Sweeper, but like SS it just slows my PC down enough to where it bothers me. I doubt it would even be an issue on a newer Computer. Maybe the next version will be lighter?

 

I used to run CounterSpy v2 alongside Prevx2 a while back and they seemed to play happily together.

Neither are on my PC now as I dropped CS due to the updates taking forever (I have a laptop so don't leave it to update overnight - it used to update on boot and took 2 mins or so whilst I could not use the darned thing!) and swapped Prevx for ThreatFire....and subsequently dropped that for Comodo 3's D+.