CounterSpy can be big ally in the spyware wars

Spyware has become a major problem for home and business PC users. Spyware is any program that loads itself onto a computer and then either corrupts the system or sends out tracking information to another party.

Software companies have responded with dozens of new products designed to ferret out the nasty invaders and remove them from your system. Both Microsoft and Symantec have joined the market, showing how large the market will be.

I just tested the newly released spyware-stopper, CounterSpy, developed by Sunbelt Software. The client edition — not the enterprise version — earned high marks in my book.

The two best-known spyware-stoppers are Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Both come in freeware versions that let people root out the worst spyware, and both deserve to be used on a regular basis.

But since spyware never sleeps, the vigilant need to add one or two extra products to the defense perimeter to really track what’s happening as you browse the Web. (If you seldom visit Web sites, the need for anti-spyware measures is much lower.)

CounterSpy has a blend of easy-to-use, reliable active agents that monitor a system to pinpoint suspicious files and scripts occurring on your PC. In that respect, it’s equal to Spybot and Ad-Aware SE Pro.

What won me over were the extra system tools built into CounterSpy. Offered are four hard-core tools to stop various processes from loading in the first place, to fully delete erased files, to remove search history and to better manage programs being loaded or running.

A couple problems did surface, however. The file manager allows you to shut down any running program — except for iTunes. For reasons that are not clear, I could shut down anything else but iTunes on my XP machine.

On the plus side, I ran both Spybot and Ad-Aware on my system recently and found about a dozen suspicious cookies. Then I ran CounterSpy and located three more files that the other two programs should have spotted.

No one program can do the whole job. CounterSpy — which retails for $19.95 — is a big ally in the battle.