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BlackOut Security Suite 2.6

BlackOut Security Suite 2.6

List Price:
Your Price: $29.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: "Bonus feature" comes with Blackout
Review: I installed Blackout 2.6, and a few days later I ran Spyware X Terminator. Guess what it found? A keylogger. Guess how it got on my hard drive? Right, it came in with Blackout. The Spyware X Terminator identified it as Quiet Eye, a software marketed by Kintech for checking up on your kids' activities on your computer. Fortunately, the Spyware X Terminator website provides the tools for removing Quiet Eye. Question for Kintech: Why are you knowingly putting spyware on your customers' computers without their knowledge?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Marginal...
Review: Overall, I'd have to say this product is kind of below average. The instructions seem unnecessarily brief and it therefore takes some experimentation to figure out how to perform some of the operations (i.e. it tells you to encrypt using the four arrow buttons but doesn't tell you what they do /it never mentions that an archive isn't actually created until you put something in it, etc.) Explanations of what you're actually doing to your computer when you perform Blackout's various functions are very brief.

The interface isn't terribly friendly, either. When you hold your cursor over a button or right click, no brief explanation of it comes up, as is fairly customary with current Windows products. There is also no way to confirm what file you're shredding, etc. because the window it comes up in is too small to hold both the path and the filename. A confirmation window does come up before the operation is finalized, but it doesn't refer to the file by name. The moral of this story: Be careful what you click on.

Keep in mind that Blackout clears browser history only. If you want your newsreader history cleared as well, you'll have to do it manually. It also does not have the capability to search for previously deleted files and shred them, so you'll need to find another product if you want to free up space on your HD or cover prior tracks. Finally, it does not seek out and destroy spyware that may have been secretly installed on your computer.

As for effectiveness, I wonder. It doesn't delete many of the auto completion addresses in Explorer. Other than that, I can't say for sure without hiring a hacker to try to trace my 'net activity, crack Blackout's encryption, and recover shredded documents. Finally, no updates are provided on their website, so I can only assume that the product's questionable effectiveness will be degraded by Microsoft's constant changes to their OS.

I have to admit to buying this product out of sheer laziness. Free utilities to clear browser history are too many to mention. Crypto-Lock (freeware) will encrypt your files, and More Space Sanitizer will (I believe) seek out and shred old documents. Overall, for fifty bucks, I expected (but didn't get) an extremely complete product, better instructions, and a sexier interface.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A little glitch
Review: This is a great program - only problem is it will only install on the C: drive. For most everyone this is not a problem, but if your Programs folder is on a different drive (Windows XP made my main drive the F: drive) you are out of luck. There is no way to install the program on any drive other than the C: drive. I received no responce to my email to the company for help.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply Great
Review: This program cleaned up my computer, shredded files I "really needed" gone, and increased the speed of my computer. Now I'm learning how to encrypt files. Simply great. Thanks!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply Great
Review: This program cleaned up my computer, shredded files I "really needed" gone, and increased the speed of my computer. Now I'm learning how to encrypt files. Simply great. Thanks!


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