PC Tools (company)
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| Type | Sàrl |
|---|---|
| Founded | 25 February 2003 |
| Headquarters | Luxembourg[1] |
| Number of locations | Australia United States United Kingdom Ukraine Ireland |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Dave Cole (Vice President and General Manager) |
| Products | see below |
| Employees | 200+ |
| Website | pctools.com |
PC Tools (founded in 2003[2]), formerly known as WinGuides.com,[3] was a software company acquired by Symantec, which still sells products under the label of PC Tools. It has headquartered in Luxembourg with offices in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Ukraine. The company develops and distributes security and optimization software for the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms. There are over 200 employees. PC Tools has won nearly 100 separate awards for its products.[citation needed]
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Products [edit]
PC Tools distributes anti-malware and system utilities software to consumers around the world. By 29 November 2006, software owned by PC Tools were downloaded over 125 million times.[4]
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PC Tools Browser Defender [edit]
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. (January 2012) |
PC Tools Browser Defender,[5] also called Browser Defender for short, is a browser toolbar for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers on Windows based computers. Browser Defender allows for safe web surfing.
PC Tools iAntiVirus [edit]
iAntivirus was updated in 2012 and rebranded as a Norton product (Norton is a brand owned by Symantec corporation).
PC Tools iAntiVirus, or simply iAntiVirus, is free antivirus software for Intel based Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The software was released in June 2008. It can be used to detect and remove malware, spyware and exploits, using both signature based and heuristic detection.
iAntiVirus has been criticized because it only scans for Macintosh viruses, rather than scanning for Windows, Linux and Mac viruses as do alternative software. However, it has also been praised for its low usage of system resources and quick scanning.[20][21][22][23]
PC Tools Internet Security [edit]
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This section requires expansion. (January 2012) |
PC Tools Internet Security,[10] previously known as PC Tools Firewall Plus, is a personal firewall. It is a payware designed for Windows 7 (32-/64-bit), Windows Vista (32-/64-bit) and Windows XP (32-bit).
The program is a two-way firewall, monitoring incoming and outgoing traffic from a computer.
PC Tools Registry Mechanic [edit]
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This section requires expansion. (January 2012) |
PC Tools Registry Mechanic,[13] is software used to scan registry to find errors. This product was the first software PC Tools released.[24] The most recent version is 11, which was released on 31 October 2011.
PC Tools Spyware Doctor [edit]
PC Tools Spyware Doctor,[15] is anti-malware software. Even though Spyware Doctor can remove dangerous software, it can't block hidden viruses and spyware. The most recent version of Spyware Doctor is 9, which was released on 31 October 2011.
PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus [edit]
PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus,[16] just like Spyware Doctor, is anti-malware software. Although, Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus has the same features as Spyware Doctor, but with more features, like blocking viruses. The most recent version is 9, which was also released on 31 October 2011.
ThreatExpert [edit]
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This section requires expansion. (January 2012) |
ThreatExpert,[19] is an advanced automated threat analysis system (initialized ATAS) built to analyze and report the actions of malware in a fully automated mode.[25]
Acquisition by Symantec [edit]
On 18 August 2008, Symantec announced the signing of an agreement to acquire PC Tools such that PC Tools would maintain separate operations.[26] The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Symantec acquired PC Tools for $262,000,000 on 6 October 2008.[27]
Symantec as decided to retire the entire PC Tools security portfolio after May 18, 2013. [28]
Reception [edit]
Spyware Doctor [edit]
Spyware Doctor received the PC World Best Buy award in the October 2007 issue of the magazine saying "PC Tools' Spyware Doctor 5.0 was the winner, outperforming the competition at detecting and removing our test set of adware and spyware samples."[29]
Spyware Doctor has received several Editors' Choice awards from PC Magazine,[30] including one for Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.5 in 2008.[31] The product has also received numerous other awards from around the globe.
Not all reviews have been positive and early versions of Spyware Doctor 5.0, which the company rewrote from scratch, received some negative commentary.[32] CNET's Download.com reviews, justifies the 3-star rating by saying, "in our trial scans, Spyware Doctor repeatedly flagged several dozen harmless cookies as potential threats, more than any other antispyware product we tested. We were also unable to learn more about each threat or why Spyware Doctor flagged each."
Criticism [edit]
Symantec was unsuccessfully sued by a Washington resident for running fake scans to get people to pay for subscriptions to PC Tools's Registry Mechanic, Performance Toolkit, and Norton Utilities[33] The lawsuit claims the company intentionally ran the fake scans and the results were not real.[34]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ PC Tools: Contact Us
- ^ "PC TOOLS RESEARCH PTY LTD". Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
- ^ "PC Tools Guides for Windows". PC Tools. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools' software passes the 125 million download threshold". PC Tools. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ a b "Browser Defender™". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools™ AntiVirus Free". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Release of Desktop Maestro v3.1.0.232". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools™ File Recover". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools iAntiVirus". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "PC Tools™ Internet Security". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools™ Performance Toolkit". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools™ Privacy Guardian Internet Privacy Software". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "PC Tools Registry Mechanic™". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools™ Simple Backup™ Automatic Backup Software". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "PC Tools Spyware Doctor™ AntiSpyware Software". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "PC Tools Spyware Doctor™ with AntiVirus". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "PC Tools Browser Explorer". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Startup Explorer". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ a b "ThreatExpert". PC Tools. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ iAntiVirus 1.0 Antivirus & Security Software Review | Macworld
- ^ PC Tools iAntiVirus review from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Anti malware software
- ^ iAntiVirus for Mac (Free) – Worth Using? » TipsFor.us
- ^ iAntiVirus is lean, simple antimalware protection for Macs | TechBlog | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
- ^ "Registry Mechanic Released". PC Tools. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "ThreatExpert: Introduction". ThreatExpert. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ "Symantec to Acquire PC Tools". Symantec. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "SEC Form 10-K, Symantec Corp, period: April 3, 2009, p. 82" (PDF). Symantec. 1 June 2009. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- ^ http://www.pctools.com/en/product-eol/index/faq/security/
- ^ Naraine, Ryan. "PC Tools Spyware Doctor 5.0 Review", PC World, 21 August 2007
- ^ Rubenking, Neil. "Weeding out the spys - Editors' Choice: Spyware Doctor 3.2", PC Magazine', June 19, 2005
- ^ Rubenking, Neil. "Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.5 - Editors' Choice Review", PC Magazine', 22 January 2008
- ^ Vamosi, Robert. "Nettlesome glitches sink Spyware Doctor 5", CNN, 29 March 2007
- ^ Yin, Sara (12 January 2012). "Symantec Sued for Scareware Tactics". PC Magazine. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Greenberg, Andy (11 January 2012). "Lawsuit Claims Symantec "Scareware" Warns Of Fake Threats To Sell Upgrades". Forbes. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
