PROS
Average resource usage
Easy to installation
Easy to uninstall
Nice user interface
Poor antispyware protection
Poor manual scanning
Inconsistent results
Difficult customer support
Avanquest makes a host of security and utility Windows applications. They're also the makers of Double Anti-Spy Antispyware 2010.
If Double Anti-Spy is any indication of their other software products, then we're greatly disappointed.
Not only did Double Anti-Spy fail to capture or block some of our spyware and trojan threats, it failed to do so constantly.
The real-time protection showed one set of results, then the manual scan showed virtually opposite results. With such wildly inconsistent results, it's impossible to put much faith in Double Anti-Spy antispyware 2010.
Double Anti-Spy Antispyware Features
- Double Engine Technology
- DoubleScan Technology
- Real-time Antispyware protection
- Quick, Total or Custom Scan
- Current Updates
- Free Customer Support
- Risk Assessment
Installation - 90%
Installation was very simple and the steps are self-explanatory.
No reboot was needed.
User Interface - 75%
The Double Anti-Spy user interface looks impressive with attractive colors, icons and images.
Everything is easy to read and navigate.
Pre-Infected Machine - 0%
$23.20
We pre-infected our testing machine with trojans and spyware to see how well it would perform.
Double Anti-Spy antispyware did not detect any of the malicious files on it’s own.
This is the worst score we've ever given to an antispyware software.
Real-time Protection - 50%
When real-time antispyware protection was enabled, we copied spyware over to our testing machine to see if Double Anti-Spy would detect or block the files.
When the trojan sets were copied over, Double Anti-Spy didn't detect any of them nor give any type of warning. Instead, the Windows alert was triggered.
On the plus side, all of our spyware files were detected and moved to the quarantined section.
Even though Double Anti-Spy antispyware performed perfectly for the spyware section, it performed horribly for our trojan sets. Therefore, we can only give it half a recommendation.
Manual Scanning - 50%
The manual scanning proved to be the exact opposite of its real-time protection score.
All of our trojan samples were detected in the manual scan, but none of the spyware files were detected.
Again, we can only give Double Anti-Spy half a recommendation for such mixed results.
Resource Usage - 60%
| Real-time protection: |
Manual Scanning: |
| Memory usage: 512 KB |
Memory usage: Max 87 MB |
| CPU usage: 60% to 92% |
CPU usage: 43% to 88% |
| Page file usage: 526 MB |
Page file usage: 601 MB |
Email Protection - 0%
Though Double Anti-Spy claims to have email protection, it doesn’t seem to be working. We did the following to test this:
- Installed Double Anti-Spy antispyware and turned on “Email Defense.” Ensured that the incoming and outgoing ports were properly identified (as they are in Outlook account settings).
- Composed a new email from Outlook and attached one of our .exe files that was infected with a trojan.
- Sent the email to an invalid email address.
As the attachment is an infected file, the software should have blocked it. However, it didn't block it nor give any type of warning. It simply tried to send the email as normal.
We duplicated this test several times with different infected files, yet Double Anti-Spy's “Email Defense” didn't defend anything.
Definition Updates - 70%
Though the updates are configurable, there are far fewer options and there is no provision to set the time and date when the updates can be downloaded.
This is normally a very common feature available in almost all the anti-spyware products we've tested this year.
Customer Support - 0%
Double Anti-Spy makes customer support very difficult to find. It's not anywhere on their site and not prominently displayed on the software.
You have to go to their parent company “Avanquest” to find support info:
Even then, all of the support is not centered on Double Anti-Spy – the support is for ALL of Avanquest's software products which makes it very difficult to find the answers you want.
Very, very sloppy.
I wouldn't buy this software based solely on this issue: they obviously don't want to talk to their customers or really help them.
This means they have no confidence in their antispyware software... and our tests have proven that anyway.
Un-Installation - 95%
Double Anti-Spy software uninstallation was very easy.
Open Add/Remove Programs, select Double Anti Spy and click Remove.
Click YES to remove the Double Anti Spy Software.
No reboot was needed to complete the un-installation.
Special Features - 87%
- Scan Optimizer: This seems to be a handy feature that can save time on scans. When activated the scans (Quick, Full, Custom) will bypass any files that haven't changed since the last scan was performed.
However, you can make exceptions to this rule by adding certain files that need to be scanned every time the scanner runs irrespective of whether they have been changed or not.
Ultimately, this makes scanning time much more efficient.
System Requirements
There is very little information about specific system requirements for Double Anti-Spy antispyware.
They only provide the following, limited info:
- Windows XP, Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Internet Connection required for updates
I guess you just have to find out the hard way if your system will support this software or not.
Conclusion
$23.20
Overall, Double Anti-Spy antispyware 2010 has proven to be a poor and unreliable antispyware software.
The real-time protection and manual scanning gave very different results; each with it's own set of problems.
The customer and technical support is very difficult to find and not well organized.
Resource usage was not great, but not too bad either.
Overall, Double Anti-Spy 2010 has proven to be inconsistent and ineffective as a reliable antispyware software program this year.
