I was told today via customer service rep for Trend Microvirus that their 2008 product was not compatible with Webroot Spysweeper. Any suggestions or advice on
1) whether or not that is true
2) which software program is the best overall protection
3) Will Trend microvirus give us back our money?

Thanks for your help and advice.

Brenda E.

Yup, they are. I purchased both when I got my new home PC. I bought both at a well-known retail chain, from none other than a Geek Squad employee!

I had used Webroot Spysweeper with Antivirus on my old (Dell 8200/XP Pro) machine, and I liked it. Trend Micro absolutely refused to allow me to install Webroot Spysweeper on my machine.

Trend Micro is not tripping my trigger. I upgraded to Internet Security Pro so I could have a firewall that was more configurable. No doubt, you can configure the personal firewall until your fingers bleed, but I'll be dipped in guano if I can understand the dumb thing. Vista Ultimate's firewall is highly configurable, too, but unless you have PhD in computer science, configuring the monstrosity to block unwanted outgoing connections is difficult.

Anyway, I tried just copying Trend Micro's default settings for the personal firewall to get started. That was a mistake. When I opened networking & sharing, I found network discovery turned on, and file sharing set to custom. I could not change any settings, as a stupid message told me I could only change settings by configuring the Trend Micro firewall. Yeah, right. I don't even understand what the effects of the incoming/outgoing settings are, let alone configuring them to not allow network discovery and file sharing.

To add to the confusion, the box next to the "Allow Remote Connections" is unticked, and I've disabled every service that even mentions the word Remote (except RPC, which I guess has to stay enabled), along with all "tunneling" network adapters, and their hidden drivers, in order to keep uninvited "guests" out.

It's an either/or proposition; I either lock this puppy down so tight I lose all internet connectivity, or I'll make a few changes that allow internet connectivity, and find spyware (MoSukr, TSpy, Worm.Sohanad, etc.) in my scan logs. We're told to run ONE antivirus app, and as many antispyware apps as we can. Trend Micro is not compatible with many other antispyware apps, from what I can see.

Oh, and one more thing; don't believe any of the hype you read about Windows Defender....it's missed EVERY piece of malware caught by Trend Micro, Spybot S & D, and Spyware Detector....and so has the Malicious Software Removal Tool! I think my next step will be a good hardware firewall.