WinTasks Pro 5 Review - Adware and Spyware Detection
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I was a bit surprised when LIUtilities said that WinTasks Pro could help fight spyware and adware, so we decided to test it.
The following system, an IBM ThinkPad 380Z with the following specifications, was used for the test:
- Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
- 96 MB RAM
- 4 GB Hard drive
- Windows 2000
To test the claim, a completely unpatched install of Windows 2000--Windows XP would be impractical on this machine--was taken for a spin on the underside of the Internet to have as many security holes exploited by adware and spyware as possible. Free software known for having adware and spyware, such as KaZaA, iMesh, Bonzi Buddy, Comet Cursor, and Grokster were installed. No antivirus programs or firewalls were used. Two hours after I started to attract spyware, I rendered the ThinkPad, affectionately known as the "brick," almost useless with 100% CPU time being constantly used.
When the computer had finished being infected, it was a mess and took over half an hour till it finished booting. I had to kill the KaZaA and iMesh tasks to keep the system somewhat responsive.
I will compare its ability to detect spyware and adware processes to Lavasoft's AdAware. I will use Spybot Search and Destroy, but it does not give a list of running processes that are at risk. Don't try this at home--both of my other computers (ThinkPad X31 and Pentium 4 2.4C) are running firewall/AV combinations or Linux.
| AdAware Personal SE | WinTasks Pro 5 |
Processes identified as security risk
| 11 | 3 |
| Total running processes | 36 | 36 |
| Total 'other' risk objects found | 1409 | 2 |
AdAware seems to wipe the floor with WinTasks Pro in terms of detection. WinTasks Pro could not detect several GAIN/Claria programs that are running as potential risks, as well as some of the ShopAtHome processes. Within the five that WinTasks identified, KaZaA and the Marktescore task (a process that AdAware terminated immediately) were labelled as "optional" for removal. Some of this can also be chalked up to the Process Library--it's quite possible that it has never seen these processes before.
I'll be perfectly honest--unless you install WinTasks Pro on a perfectly clean computer and then enable the "Confirm All Processes" option, WinTasks Pro can't do much in terms of preventing spyware and adware processes. Reading AdAware's logs explains the problem: some spyware manifests itself as DLLs which are loaded by system processes as well as other programs. This means that to shut down all adware and spyware related processes, an examination of every DLL loaded by every process is necessary. For example, AdAware saw that the ShopAtHome component lsp.dll was being loaded by innocuous processes such as the RealVNC server.
Because WinTasks Pro focuses solely on processes (and on DLLs somewhat), it cannot find spyware in the form of ActiveX controls, BHO objects, and registry entries. Some adware IE toolbars are not processes, and are completely invisible to Task Manager and WinTasks Pro. This "HiJack This" log shows what else WinTasks Pro didn't catch.
The fact that WinTasks Pro 5 has no search function for adware and spyware seriously limits its ability to find adware and spyware. It can help with decent preventative measures, in concert with a firewall, antivirus, and user education.
Next: Conclusions >>
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