Here is it. My review of the new Ewido 4.0. Which is in beta mode. No official download release as of yet to the public. I want to point out that this review is entirely my opinion and influenced in no other way other than to test this product on my system. This article is best viewed in Internet Explorer. So here goes.
Obviously many users like and dislike Ewido. I like it. I think it is a great application and tool in detecting many malware.
The installation process is the same as Ewido 3.5. Smooth and quick. No problems at all. When you run it, the main difference you will notice is the interface change. Which is fresh and all new. But that won’t determine the way it performs. But still I like it.
New feature – “Tools”
This part includes the “Antispy” and “Shredder” tools. You can disable many things in AntiSpy:-
Error Reporting
Internet Explorer
Window Media Player
Windows Messenger
Miscellaneous
Services
Expert Options
Each one above can be opened and disabled from within.
The “Analysis” feature
You also have “Analysis” were you can play about with your Processes, Connections, Autostarts, Browser Plugins and view your Layered Service Providor.
Most of the things you can do with version 4 are basically the same. Just this time some of the options are in more detail. Like for instance the updating. You can set up intervals ranging from 60 minutes to 24 hours. So to whatever time you set it. It will check for new updates. The “Status” feature is even more advanced. Not only can you disable and enable real-time protection and automatic updates. You can also reset counter for “detected malware so far”.
The “Shield” feature
Moving on to the “Shield”, which is more advanced. In the image below you can see what is available to you.
Ewido-Shield Image
As you can see there are four boxes you can check and uncheck. Whichever one you check will let you know with a warning, if anything gets detected.
The “Infections” feature
You can remove anything in the quarantine and also ignore any matching threats during a scan and in the real-time protection. By clicking on “Add Rule” to get a pop up asking you to “Ignore by name of threat” or “Ignore file/path”. Then typing in the name and clicking on ok.
There is also a report feature. Where any reports can be saved when you carried out any scans. Handy of you need to save the report and paste it to someone on a forum where you are seeking help.
The most important feature, the “Scanner”
For this feature I infected my own system to test it. See if it picked it up. Nothing major. Some tracking cookies and a trojan. Just so I can show you what happens. Before that I set the scanner. Now I suppose you can set it to whatever you prefer. Below you can see the options available.
Ewido-Scan-Setting Image
Now once set to the way I wanted, I went ahead and used a fast scan. Let it run whilst having a break. The difference from this version to “version 3.5″ is that you do not get a pop up window anymore asking you to remove anything found. It just scans away and once finished scanning you can then do what you want with the objects found. Now I like this. It is much better. Here is an image I took from it.
Ewido-ScanResult Image
So now you can see what it found. And to remove the objects or send them to the “Quarantine” you just simply have to move your cursor over the action of each on and right-click. Then just click on “Apply”. You can also save a scan report. Which is the same as the previous version.
My “Conclusion”
So after having a play about with this new version. What do I think about it? Well I think it is still a great tool. I like the fact no pop up window comes when it detects a malicious object or tracking cookie. The real time protection feature has more options which I like. And it has some new features. Is it a resourse hog? To soon to tell. I will have to see how it runs for a few days.
With more features than version 3.5, it certainly is an improvement. I do however hope that “Ewido” concentrate more on picking up trojans and other malicious infections. By that I mean, less tracking cookies and more trojans get detected. Certainly whoever uses this tool will find it picks up alot of tracking cookies. Mainly from “FireFox”. Which you can remove everytime you close the Firefox browser. But not everyone will know that.
Out of ten I rate it a nine. For the reasons that it has been improved and made more user friendly. But remember. Not every anti-malware application will detect everything.
As this is still a beta version. Expect new additions and alterations. Thanks to Grisoft for letting me test this new version.
