Filed under: Security, Windows, Op-Ed
Lark Antispyware is free, but sometimes getting what you pay for is a bad thing
by Lee Mathews Oct 8th 2009 at 3:30PM
Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for free applications that help us keep our systems malware-free, provided that they actually work as advertised. Lark Antispyware...not so much.
When I see something new and potentially interesting show up on Softpedia, I'll download it to see if it's worth sharing. Most of the time an app is postable because it's useful. Sometimes it's postable because people should probably stay away. You can see where I'm going here.
If you looked at the screenshot above, a couple things probably struck you. It's riddled with false positives and the "trojans" seem to be randomly named. There's no "more information" button to offer any kind of clarification, and you certainly won't turn up any info on Google if you search for that alphanumeric jibberish.
As you can see, Lark is happy to try removing these "infections" for me, but I'm pretty sure I don't want it messing with msconfig, winload, isoburn, or my TeamViewer executables. I was also put off by the option of running a "Cunstom Scan" from the system tray icon.
Call me crazy, but I like my security-related apps to have a bit more polish than that.
Pro tip: stick with Malwarebytes for now --it's free, and it's awesome. If something better comes along, you'll read about it here.
When I see something new and potentially interesting show up on Softpedia, I'll download it to see if it's worth sharing. Most of the time an app is postable because it's useful. Sometimes it's postable because people should probably stay away. You can see where I'm going here.
If you looked at the screenshot above, a couple things probably struck you. It's riddled with false positives and the "trojans" seem to be randomly named. There's no "more information" button to offer any kind of clarification, and you certainly won't turn up any info on Google if you search for that alphanumeric jibberish.
As you can see, Lark is happy to try removing these "infections" for me, but I'm pretty sure I don't want it messing with msconfig, winload, isoburn, or my TeamViewer executables. I was also put off by the option of running a "Cunstom Scan" from the system tray icon.
Call me crazy, but I like my security-related apps to have a bit more polish than that.
Pro tip: stick with Malwarebytes for now --it's free, and it's awesome. If something better comes along, you'll read about it here.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kenn.keeper said 4:45PM on 10-08-2009
I agree with you Lee to a point. Yes there is a lot of freeware out there and as you have probably seen I'm all for free, BUT the major issue in dealing with freeware I feel is the lack of reading as much as you can about them before ever thinking about downloading. Yes there are some slick and sometimes obnoxious people who want their 15 minutes of fame by writing software (or sometimes copying it and claiming it their own).
I can never emphasize more than to READ, READ and then READ again anything dealing with your computer and that includes EULA's which is another chapter that should be covered......
Free is Good
Kenn.....
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Jake G said 11:23PM on 10-08-2009
Better idea, use Microsoft Security Essentials.
Its free and hella good.
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drhilding said 4:21PM on 10-09-2009
You ever thought maybe it's a "lark"?
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