UPDATE: 10/21/2009 – noticed they changed domains again to verycleanpc.com recently. Very Clean PC dot com just appears to be the same old Cyberdefender nonsense.
After hearing advertising for doublemyspeed.com with “interesting” claims in them, some have asked about it and my own curiosity was raised.
There’s a ton of this “speed your PC up” software out there. Often it’s advertised with some pretty great sounding claims but no real evidence to back the claims up. Most of the time, this stuff is simply good at one thing….helping suckers part with their hard earned dollars. Often they do this by getting their advertising to run on various radio and TV networks in an attempt to build credibility.
You know what they say about “if it sounds too good to be true……”
Folks, unless you’ve got serious virus/spyware problems, it’s pretty hard to swallow that any piece of software will make your PC twice as fast. A little common sense goes a long ways here. The performance issues caused by registry errors are often very exaggerated (I’m being kind).
Yes registry errors could be the source of errors, some serious for sure, but major performance impact is rare at best. Working in IT, far too often I’ve had to go in and fix problems and serious messes created by these registry cleaning tools that can do more harm than good. If this was such a huge problem don’t you think Microsoft would come up with their own tool for this? Who would know the Windows registry better than Microsoft?
Back to DoubleMySpeed.com ….
Double My Speed just appears to be a “re-branding” of the Cyberdefender product(s). Judging by the user comments on McAfee’s Site Advisor “cyberdefender.com” page here, you don’t need to ponder for long as to why they might of changed the name.
Curious about it and an IT guy myself, I took an older Dell laptop that I have handy for such testing. I dropped a known clean and perfectly functional fresh XP Pro install image onto it. This would allow me to check this software out carefully and in a controlled environment.
Next, I went to www.doublemyspeed.com and downloaded their software and installed it. By default it opts you into yet another browser toolbar called “MyIdentityDefender Security Toolbar” which doesn’t appear to be that useful and has an interesting terms of use agreement (what else is new). Normally I’d never install a third party toolbar that tries to automatically opt me into it (box already checked), but wanting to stick to a default install of their software I did so.
When I ran it, the software is clearly labeled as CyberDefender Registry Cleaner Trial. I did not see any sign of anti-virus or anti-spyware capabilities in it.
I run it and wow it strangely comes up with 424 errors. Obviously my Bravo Sierra (BS) detector hit the red zone! Nice try CyberDefender, Double My Speed, or whomever you are this week. Your results are apparently next to useless and I see nothing here that would help a user with a virus or malware problem.
Figuring what the heck, since this is a test image…I hit the “fix it” button. Of course, like most of this software it immediately opens the web browser and you have to pay to go any further (up-selling). The software stays in the system tray and ran again on reboot with another “you’ve got 424 registry errors” screen again. Would it continue to do so as I use the laptop? I don’t know as by this time I’d seen more than enough from this software.
Folks, IMHO don’t waste your time on this software which I’d have to classify as borderline scareware at best.
Looking over their website I note a few things that always makes me nervous:
1. Logos that indicate reviews by USA Today, CNET, and Computerworld, yet no links to the actual reviews.
2. Images of folks saying it “worked great for them” with rather generic looking names, no locations, no links to the email or letter to back this up.
3. Statements like this in their privacy policy “CyberDefender is not a licensee of TRUSTe’s privacy program but is committed to complying with TRUSTe’s policies and practices.”
4. Terms of Service that contains provisions like this “All purchasers of the Software are automatically subscribed to the Plan and the original credit card will be charged automatically (or withdraw funds via electronic transfer from your checking account – depending on what payment method you are using)”
5. I’m always gun shy of products and services that use “heavy” advertising day in, day out, month after month. If the product or service is really that great, they would not have to spend all that money advertising now would they? Advertising isn’t cheap, especially national ads playing all day long. Truly great products and services will sell themselves with only minimal initial and/or occasional advertising to build awareness.
Many things in both their Terms of Service and Privacy policy make me very nervous about this firm and it’s business practices. They may be perfectly fine and legal, but I’m not going to do business with them.
If you just think you must have a registry cleaner, I’m fairly sure there are free ones out there that are better than this software.
The toolbar?
Read the user agreement and the “opt in” screen during the installation and you can make up your own mind if you really want this on your system. This toolbar appears to be by the same company that tells me I’ve got 424 errors on a good/fresh XP install. ’nuff said?
If you want a security toolbar for your browser then you’re probably better off sticking to well recognized ones like McAfee’s, Yahoo’s, or NetCraft’s toolbar offerings. I highly recommend you consider the NetCraft toolbar here. Your call though.
Personally, neither the Registry Cleaner or the toolbar component will be left on my systems. The test laptop was imaged back to it’s previous state after a post scan image was made.
I will be very curious to see how the user comments on McAfee’s SiteAdvisor page for doublemyspeed.com here turn out over time. Wonder how long CyberDefender will stick with doublemyspeed.com before changing the advertised domain name again?
All this said, I encourage folks not to rely solely upon my review of it. Please do your own research and form your own opinions of this software’s appropriateness.
Comments (kept civil and clean) are open on this post.
Update:
Some links to folks discussing these CyberDefender products. Granted folks can say/post anything on the internet, both negative and positive. Also folks behind these products can hide and post positive reviews too…works both ways. So be careful and make your own informed choices:
Discussion on the complaintsboard.com site.
Complaint on RipoffReport.com site.
Another complaint.
Fire up your favorite search engine and try doublemyspeed.com scam as your search, you’ll find plenty to read over. This is a good idea for any new software you’re considering on your computer. A healthy dose of skepticism will serve you well in today’s world.
You know what they say about “if it sounds too good to be true……”
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UPDATE: 10/21/2009 – noticed they changed domains again to verycleanpc.com recently. Very Clean PC dot com just appears to be the same old Cyber Defender nonsense.
