A few short years ago, Webroot Spy Sweeper was arguably the biggest anti-spyware application available. However, Webroot migrated in to the corporate market and, apart from within the US, they left few resources for promoting their products to consumers. They also have a rather obscure way revising their products. The original Spy Sweeper 5.0 was released over two years ago, when PC Tools were still promoting Spyware Doctor 4. Since then, they've moved to 5.3, 5.5 and now 5.8. Although it appears to be a minor number revision, this new version does contain a number of new features and is the biggest update for a year.

Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.8 is commercial anti-spyware software and this new version includes enhanced support for detecting spyware, the ability to check and scan your computer in the background whilst you play a game in the foreground and protection for the latest Vista PCs.

Webroot Desktop Firewall 5.8 was also released, with a number of improvements. It's a free firewall for home use.

22 Jul 2008