XoftSpySE is an anti-malware program produced by Pareto Logic. The latest version can not only remove spyware, as the name suggests, but also keyloggers and Trojans. The most impressive part about XoftSpySE is its small size and regularly updated definitions. The program is also compatible with all versions of Windows including 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
The installation of XoftSpySE was straightforward. As previously mentioned, the download size for the total antivirus plus definitions was only 4 megabytes. After the installation was complete, the program automatically updated the definitions. The most amazing thing is that the update size was only 6.7 megabytes. Unfortunately, most free antivirus now want to download upwards of 100 megabytes to update on install (I find this quite annoying).
XoftSpySE offers a few scanning options the full, quick, and custom scan option. The scanner appears to prescan with a location based detection mechanism. Essentially, XoftSpySE will check predefined locations for malware which is an extremely fast process. Therefore, a quick scan completed in a brisk 3 seconds but scanned over 235,133 items plus 1218 objects. Full System Scanning performs the prescan option but is also a location based. Oddly the scanner scanned drives other than the C: drive first. A full system finished very quickly in only 7 minutes but still managed to scan 283,000 objects in addition to the prescaned items. Subsequent full system scans are memory scans and only take about 30 seconds to complete. XoftSpySE also scans the Host file for malware entries.
Resource usage with XoftSpySE is excellent and is better than most free antivirus competitors. During idle operation the program uses approximately 12 megabytes of RAM. While scanning XoftSpySE starts a service which adds 58 megabytes and approximately 13 percent CPU power. The scanner scans at approximately 2 to 4 megabytes but still manages to scan very quickly.
In addition to great scanning, the XoftSpySE has a great scheduling option and quarantine. There are also included tools which allow one to enable or disable IE BHO “add ons†and a comprehensive startup editor. The publisher also frequently updates the definitions with the most recent update on January 18th. Some things that I don’t like about XoftSpySE are that the settings page is quite sparse, I would like to see the actual amount of signatures, and finally some more indepth tools.
