Webroot AntiVirus with Spy Sweeper 3-User [Old Version]

Horrible, horrible, horrible! I read the reviews and considered the negative ones but felt that the positive ones outweighed the negatives so I went ahead and bought this! What a terrible mistake that was! It slowed my computer to a crawl and sometimes to a complete standstill! What used to load in seconds literally took several minutes when the computer responded at all. I wasn't even sure I would be able to uninstall the program because the computer just stopped responding. I thought I would have to take it to a computer repair place to get it out! It was nothing but a nightmare. I will never do this again. When I finally got the program uninstalled, hey presto! My computer began running just fine. These negative reviews are written for good reason! I just wasted $34.99 and could have wasted a lot more if I had had to take the computer in for repair/uninstall.

First, I'm an advanced user. 2-Home networks running independently that include 5-laptops, 1-desktop (Vista), and 1-MS Server 2003. The reviews on Amazon initially made me hesitate about this product; although, the 2011 version rates very highly in PCMag and PCWorld testing. After receipt and installation of this Security Suite, I'm not sure what all the hub-bub is all about? I have everything from XP SP-3 to Vista Professional (not on 7 yet) with two different Office Suites (2003 & 2007) and a plethora of applications on each machine - I EXPERIENCED ABSOLUTELY ZERO ISSUES WITH THIS PRODUCT. I also utilize several industry specific apps for insurance (AMS360 for example) that tend to be very finicky about security software and generally don't react well to firewalls, shields, etc. Again, I had NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER with this product. Over the years, I've used McAfee, Norton, Panda, AVG, Ad-Aware, AVAST, Kaspersky, and ESET (consumer and corporate versions) and Webroot has really done a nice job with this security suite. Installation was clean, scanned each system witout issue, no false-positives as of yet, and no blocked apps. I hope this review helps disspell some of the dark cloud that seems to be hanging over this product on Amazon. I have no doubt folks experienced problems, but likely, there were problems (possibly hidden) with those systems prior to the installation of this product, so FEAR NOT and purchase with confidence.

While I'm pretty confident the protection will be fine if you're careful, the interface is really wanting. You get a very annoying "you have alerts to view" almost every single day and it takes multiple clicks to see what it is they're telling you and, so far, it's only been tracking cookies. Great - thanks for telling me. To be fair, there's probably some setting so that I can adjust the level of this alert... but out of the box it should only warn you of actual threats and viruses. Be aware that this is not the most highly rated software based on A/V tests... but it's solid and the price is right. However, if you have people in your home that have lazy security practices, this may not be for you. I got this because it was a three-pack and the price was fabulous. So, for the price, it's good enough.

I've used Webroot's product for several years and have recommended it to many friends and saved a couple of computers along the way. Technical support was always available when needed and good with the information. This is probably their best version yet, as I especially like the "smart" scanning feature which automatically determines the least obtrusive time to perform a scan. Be sure to purchased the product from a reliable source since some vendors like to be unclear about their offering a 'single' or 'multiple' install version. Also, be sure that you are buying the package with the Spy Sweeper. Enjoy!

In order to actually get any throughput on your computer, you cannot have automatic scanning enabled on your Windows XP 32 bit system. My system has 4 GB of RAM and an Intel i7 CPU - in other words, it is quite powerful. Webroot routinely decides to scan whenever it wants to, despite attempts to configure it to only turn on in the middle of the night. With automatic scanning disabled, I have to periodically conduct a manual scan. On the other hand, in this mode at least I can use my machine. However, if you have any externally connected USB hard drives, this will cause the system to hang even if no scan is in progress. It is necessary to keep them offline until needed and plugging them in again and getting ANY throughput requires you to uninstall Webroot. The 2011 Spy Sweeper version does NOT allow you to configure the software to eliminate this issue and turning off all the checks and then putting it into so-called "Gamer Mode" does not help. In addition, I rely on Spybot, a terrific malware detector. Each time I wish to use Spybot, I have to jump through hoops with Webroot to get it to allow Spybot to immunize my machine against known threats from risky sites and domains. In short, Webroot is not really ready for prime time. It cannot be used on a computer whose user actually wants to do any work. You may have no viruses but that is little consolation for all the time, effort, and frustration of trying to get anything done with Webroot installed. BTW, this also hangs when your iPod is connected. iTunes will not start. I have asked for a refund.

Webroot came preinstalled when I purchased my computer. I decided to give it a shot. I was very happy the first year as I experienced no problems. When it came time to renew I was happy to see that Amazon was selling the exact product for half of what the automatic update on the computer wanted. I installed the product in April 2011. It is May 2011 and I have been attacked by the same trojan virus 3 times (it acts as a Windows update and then tries to get you to download some phony Windows virus protection all while freezing you out of every program on your computer). Webroot doesn't even recognize it. Unable to go through another round of fixing my computer I installed Norton. Voila! Within 5 min my computer was fully operational and virus free. I wish I could praise Webroot for offering a more affordable product that works, but I no longer have that opinion.

I've been computing since DOS, and have burned through an awful lot of software in that time, including utilities like anti-virus. I've used all the big ones and some lesser ones, too. Webroot Antivirus with Spy Sweeper has to rank as THE BEST. Start with ease of installation. Then, when running, I quickly noted its simplicity of interface, smoothness of operation running in background, the quickness and almost perfect transparency of its scans, and its fully intelligible reports. Most of all, however, were the smack-on results it gave me. Which requires me to relate an abbreviated story: For over a year my home PC, running Vista, had been subject to irregular, and annoyingly frequent freezing of the screen and all input devices, sometimes once a week, more often three or four times per day. Over many months, I painstakingly researched the possible causes, and one by one eliminated them, with no success. I was all ready to strip out Vista and migrate to 7, when my former top-rated anti-virus subscription ran out. I decided to try Webroot, because it was less expensive, and well recommended. Immediately on installing Webroot and performing the first scan, it detected hundreds of malware, spyware, etc. that my big name-brand anti-virus hadn't. Best of all, the freeze-ups vanished, and NEVER returned. It's been several months, and not only is my PC free of freeze-ups, my wife swears it does everything faster that when it was new. Webroot, we're fans. Keep up the good work.

I purchased this DVD instead of buying a Download, thinking that I'd be able to avoid the typical problems that a dial-up user encounters when trying to download a large file from the Internet. I wasn't aware that I'd have to subsequently download a humongous load of UPDATES after I had installed the out-dated contents of the DVD into my computer. The maximum amount of time that I can be connected to the Internet before I have to re-establish my dial-up connection is 4 hours, and it takes a lot more time than 4 hours to download these UPDATES with a dial-up connection. THIS IS AN INSURMOUNTABLE PROBLEM, because Webroot hasn't seen fit to provide a data manager, which would allow one to continue the download from whatever point it had been interrupted, due to a break in the Internet connection. Webroot's UPDATES have to be successfully downloaded in one fell swoop, or the download fails. When I emailed Webroot's technical support for a possible solution, I WAS ADVISED TO TAKE MY COMPUTER TO A PLACE WHERE I COULD ACCESS A BROADBAND CONNECTION, and to download the updates there. Rather than hassling with the effort of trying to accomplish that, I kissed my $16.60 goodbye, and downloaded a reputable and well-known anti-virus product for free. It took a little more than 9 hours to download that software - but it could be done, because that product has a built-in data manager. If Webroot were a reputable company, they would inform their potential customers that their product IS NOT SUITABLE for anyone, who uses a dial-up ISP.