If any of you watch TV on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt seen the commercials for MyCleanPC.com, DoubleMySpeed.com, and MaxMySpeed.com, all three of which are owned by CyberDefender.

With claims such as – “Quickly clean your system and increase speed”, “Get rid of infected emails, pop-ups and spam”, “Remove dangerous spyware and viruses”, “Prevent annoying screen freezes, crashes and errors”, “Quickly clean your computer and restore peak performance”, “Speed up your operating system with our easy one-click PC repair”, “Avoid expensive upgrades and make your computer run like new” – they almost sound too good to be true. And we all know what they say about things that seem too good to be true……

First of all, any company that feels the need to masquarade themselves as something else makes me a little nervous. If CyberDefender were a stand-up product that works the way it is supposed to, they probably wouldn’t need to market themselves as something or someone else. Hmmmm…..

Second, after MANY years of repairing PC’s infected with spyware and virus’s as well as other (usually hardware related) problems, I can tell you one thing with a fair amount of certainty – no single software is perfect at fixing a PC. Ever.

With those points in mind, I’m going to delve deeper into the CyberDefender software, as well as their terms of service, and see what the real deal is. Come along for the ride with me, won’t you?

To test the software, I decided to start with a fresh installation of Windows XP. I’m using a retail version of XP Home, running in VirtualBox on my Linux PC. The reason for running it in VirtualBox is to limit the required installation to the “bare essentials” – no esoteric hardware drivers, no pre-installed software, just Windows XP Home, straight off the original CD. I wonder what CyberDefender will have to say? Let’s see:

The install went smoothly, as can be seen below:

Opps…here comes my first concern. It’s not unusual these days for software to try to install a toolbar during install, but it’s a practice I personally detest. Companies know that most people just keep clicking in order to get to the end of the install, never reading what they’re clicking. I, for one, don’t feel the need for toolbars to be installed in my browser. Toolbars might be useful in some instances, but by and large, they’re a nuisance, they consume resources, and they’re just one more point of failure for the browser. No thanks. Note that there is nothing stated here about CyberDefender installing it’s own toolbar – remember that for later…

After the installation is complete, you are presented with this image. Note #4 – by itself it seems harmless, but there is a psychological component at work. Think about – the software is already setting you up to expect that you will need to activate the software if it finds problems. Hmmm…..

Now for the really fun part – the initial scan. Now, keep in mind, this is a fresh install of XP. The end all is, it took hours to get even part way through the scanning process. I have no proof, but I’m willing to concede that this is due to XP being installed as a virtual machine. Odds are, the scan would have completed much faster if the Windows install was like any other. My concern is the way the scan presents itself. It’s another psychological manipulation (not a lie so much as a misdirection).

The numbers, shown in red, give the impression that there is a problem, even though it’s not implicitly stated (and if you read a little closer, it’s “Now Scanning”). To the less knowledgeable, it would indicate a problem. Now look for the green button. Most humans perceive green as being “good”, while viewing red as being “bad”. See whats going on?

View the “psychological manipulation” at work:

So far, just on principle, I hate this product. I have no proof that it doesn’t work, but my gut tells me that if the makers of the software are employing these types of tactics, I shouldn’t trust them. A good product should be able to stand on it’s own merit, not trick you into thinking you need it. Moving on.

After a reboot, I decided to take a look at the memory usage, just to compare it to other “Internet Security” packages I’ve tested in the past. Nothing out of the ordinary here, the CyberDefender software consumes about 50 MB of RAM on startup, and during the testing peaked at about 80 MB. All things considered, not bad.

Well, my testing is done, so it’s time to uninstall. Here’s where things start getting interesting again. The first thing I notice in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel in Windows is that there is not only the CyberDefender software, but that it also installed a Browser Toolbar called “Link Patrol”. Not once during the install did it ask me about installing anything other than the Bing Toolbar.

This “extra” toolbar doesn’t uninstall unless you specifically uninstall it. More about that later. I started by uninstalling just the main software. The picture below is what I was presented with:

First, and again, notice the green. Free is good, right? Wrong. The software is trying to get you to involve yourself in TrialPay, a commissioning service for other software. Essentially, you would get the CyberDefender software for “free” by signing up for “trials” of other software (which, of course, require a valid credit card). This is classic “Triangle Scheme” logic at work. Now I know I hate this software.

After avoiding this little scheme like the plague, the uninstall is “complete”, save for the Link Patrol toolbar. Wondering exactly what this toolbar does, I reboot XP, and decide to open Internet Explorer. Keeping in mind this is a brand new install of XP, lets take a look at what I get:

Wow. Internet Explorer has become unresponsive. I bet if I call CyberDefender’s “tech support”, I’ll hear how it must be a virus or spyware causing havoc with the uninstall due to sun spots and the price of tea in China, and that reinstalling (and paying for) the CyberDefender software will solve the problem.

Being technically savvy as I am, I went back to the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel and removed the toolbar, rebooted XP, and viola – IE was working fine again. Go figure. After everything was uninstalled, I took a deeper look to see what CyberDefender had left behind after being completely uninstalled. Using HiJackThis by TrendMicro, this is what I discovered:

And what do my eyes detect – a missing BHO (most likely the Link Patrol toolbar) entry left in the registry, and not one, not two, but three services still running from the CyberDefender software. Generally, uninstalling means “to uninstall or remove”. The fact that there are leftover services is of some concern. They could be anything. Thanks to HiJackThis, I was able to remove them easily.

In short, I wouldn’t recommend this software, or the MyCleanPC.com or DoubleMySpeed.com services.  While not a “scam”, they definetly employ tactics that I don’t approve of.

If you’re looking for a decent software that has been proven effective and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, check out AVG Internet Security. It’s highly reviewed by tons of other sites, it’s standard issue at a lot of colleges, and proven effective at removing virus’s and spyware. Also, oddly enough, AVG doesn’t have to resort to craptastic TV advertising with vague claims and ambiguous terminology. Go figure… I’ve used it for repairing PC’s for years – even the free edition works better than many of the pay-for Internet Security programs that are available.

Trend Micro is another company that offers a free scanning service called Trend Micro House Call (click the link and look on the right of the landing page). It does a pretty good job of removing common spyware and virus’s and costs nothing.

Always remember though, the best defense against malware on your PC is common sense. Remember the basic rules of the internet – Nothing is truly free, If it sounds to good to be true – it is, and, If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it.