Trend Micro has updated their Housecall online scanner in the latest beta with a security/spyware scanner. This scanner of course utilizes Active X controls, so can only be used by Active X aware browsers like Internet Explorer. I've been trying it out for a few days now, and so far it discovered 3 things that Giant, SpySweeper, Adaware and Spybot all missed. These were genuine infections, 1 was a virus, 2 were spyware. Pest Patrol also flagged the afore mentioned items when I used Pest Patrol Corporate to scan my system (Kaspersky flagged the virus as well).

I cleaned the offenders out and right away noticed a significant speedup in my browsing and general computer function.

The program itself is easy to use, and allows you to choose exactly which drives and directories to allow the program to scan in a very simple interface. Very user friendly.

I would recommend this tool as a good backup utility if one so chooses to use it. Not as a first line of defense however, as false positives remain a worry, especially with a beta product. Also the reliance on Active X in all of these scanners is a big concern. I am hoping after my email corespondence with Trend Micro and Bit Defender that they will start acknowledging the fact that Mozilla/Firefox is now a very large presence on the internet and will start making their tools available for those users and not just Internet Explorer clones.

All in all I give it a 3 out of 4.

hmm. I actually "just" used TrendMicro Housecall this morning I guess either it's a) no news Flash "Yea we scan for spyware too now!", or my computer is/was already clean? Cause it scanned no problems, no detections of any type.

I really like this tool. The other day i gave it a run and it picked up a Spyware threat and trojan threat which Avast, avg, symantec online scan, Microsoft anti-spyware, adaware, and spybot didnt find. Great stuff.