Desktop Armor Reviewed - Essential Security

[Kobra]

I've been talking about "Backend" protection for a few months now.. Basically, what a backend security product will do is protect your PC from many types of adware/spyware, trojans, joke programs, worms and annoying software by securing the holes in Windows. I personally feel some sort of backend protection is a requirement for all PC's. Antivirus software, and firewalls will seldom fully protect you from basic annoyances and intrusions. For example your firewall or AV isn't going to stop a program that wants to install a few junk programs on your desktop - or its not going to prevent some spy type service from being installed.

One of the best Backend protection programs i've ever seen is one called "Desktop Armor". Its small, highly efficient, and has a wealth of protection for your desktop. It works PERFECTLY with any firewall or antivirus software, and in fact, compliments them quite well! The product has a free 30 day full trial, and costs only $25 to register. The program was released in June, and has had one major update since then, so the developer seems pretty active.

http://www.desktoparmor.com/

Lets look at some shots of the interface and some of what the program does.. Even though these screenshots won't show you everything it protects, it will give you a good idea.

In the following screenshots, you can see the great "Tools" available in this program.. I routinely use the in-use file deletion part for those pesky locked files. But in addition, you get a very nice startup editor, and browser extras editor, as well as a Emergency Browser Reset incase you are hijacked.

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop7.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop6.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop5.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop3.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop4.JPG

Desktop Armor also includes blockers for popups and webbugs, with nice configurability and whitelists available for the popups as well. A nice added bonus for people that use browsers that lack good popup protection - also great since most browsers don't block webbugs.

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop10.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop11.JPG

For general Windows protection, this program has a ton of them!

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop9.JPG

It does everything from keep rogue services from being installed or run, from keeping random icons from being placed on your desktop, to locking down your file associates. It also keeps your network and internet settings from being forcefully changed without your knowledge. Worthy of mention here, is it also keeps suspicious things from being installed on your box, such as some trojans that might attach to other programs and run before the other program. In my tests, it found Sockspy.dll that BitDefender was using to pre-scan incoming packets on my network. Great stuff!

Desktop Armor also quickly and easily allows you to turn off annoying services for newbs that don't know how to do this manually. But in addition, Desktop Armor also checks to see what products you install or have installed, and automatically adds security options for them into the product, allowing you to tweak security. For example you can disallow scripts in Mediaplayer, or keep http/ftp and other prefixes in IE from being re-directed or changed. Very handy additional protection.

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop9.JPG

Also, whats not shown, but the product does it, is it locks down your windows "Services" and keeps rogue and unwanted services from being installed and executed on your machine. It also keeps your registry protected, not just focused on the RunKey, but other commonly infiltrated key locations in the registry as well.

If Desktop Armor does encounter something wierd happening, it will STOP the action, and alert you with various popups such as this:

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop2.JPG

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/desktop1.JPG

In conclusion, this is a must have product, and I highly recommend it. I've run it on 2 machines for the last month, and have ended up purchasing it. It has saved me numerous headaches, more than I can count. In fact, last night a bit torrent client tried to load 2 new suspicious services on my computer while I was sleeping. This product stopped it cold, and allowed me to cancel it, and delete them! I can't think of a better product to compliment your antivirus software. Also, I installed this thing on my brother-in-laws box, and after a full month of the newbs in his family surfing porno sites, I can report his computer is clean as a whistle.

As such, this product gets the Kobra seal of approval. 8-)

[spartan232323]

hehe, nice review Kobra. Just hope this one doesn't get deleted..........