The Spy Sweeper 5.3 with Antivirus interface remains unchanged from that of Spy Sweeper 5, with the exception of a tiny upper-right corner panel informing you whether antivirus protection has been enabled. After rebooting, we found no trace of Spy Sweeper in the Program Files directory or the system registry. Should you decide to uninstall Spy Sweeper, Webroot includes an uninstall icon on the All Programs list.

After installation, we were asked to reboot our system. We experienced no difficulties installing Spy Sweeper 5.3 with Antivirus. For the same $39, we think you're better off with a traditional antivirus product that also includes antispyware protection, such as our Editors' Choice. For now, we think Spy Sweeper 5.3 isn't ready for prime time. However, it took the longest to complete its scan, it didn't do so well at removing all traces of found spyware, and not all of Spy Sweeper's defense shields are turned on by default. As for traditional antispyware protection, Spy Sweeper 5.3 did well at shielding our machine from new spyware and detecting spyware already established. Webroot says that additional antivirus functionality will be added to later versions of Spy Sweeper, but for the moment, we're nervous about making Spy Sweeper our only antivirus protection. But the antivirus scanner included within Spy Sweeper isn't fully implemented and doesn't extend protection to common virus vectors such as e-mail or IM.

And rather than build its own antivirus engine, Webroot has wisely partnered with top-rated U.K.-based Sophos Anti-Virus, which sells primarily to the enterprise market. Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.3 with Antivirus would seem like a powerful combination, given that McAfee, Norton, and Trend Micro all combine their antivirus and antispyware scans.

Webroot antivirus rating