Heard of this software called WinPooch? Bet you haven’t heard of it before right? And this is a crime. Seriously, this is such a great open source software that it should be mentioned everywhere we go. WinPooch is all about security. It’s an anti-spyware and anti-trojan software and it does real-time protection which a lot of other free software doesn’t. This way, your system can be free of spyware and trojans all the time. Please note that I am not saying that it is prefect, what I am saying that it provides a powerful shield for you against these types of nasties on the Internet. WinPooch uses the API hooking method to stop spyware and trojans from entering your system. It monitors the programs running in your system and gives the user full control of their software behaviour. Of course, I would combine this with other anti-spyware programs.

Oh, and it becomes an antivirus software as well if you associate it with ClamWin. ClamWin is based on Clam Antivirus (the open source email anti-virus system) and it works on Windows. However, the problem with ClamWin is that it doesn’t do real-time scanning. It is a big security hole because viruses can enter anytime and anywhere. It is definitely better to prevent viruses from infecting your system rather than trying to remove viruses from your system. Thus, if you use WinPooch with ClamWin, it does real-time scanning for you, stopping viruses from infecting your system there and then. Getting rid of viruses can also be a very time consuming task.

This free software really makes a different, especially when combined when ClamWin. I always wanted to see how Clam Antivirus would work as a desktop service instead of an email scanning system. The great thing about Clam Antivirus is that it is updated regularly, and leveraging on this superb scanner, we can now do real-time protection using WinPooch. WinPooch is designed for WinNT/Win2000/WinXP. I don’t know whether it will work for Win Vista.