Does Doublemyspeed.com work?
Commercials have started playing on the radio for a website called Doublemyspeed.com which claims to drastically improve the speed of your PC (double it, if you will). Any program that makes large claims like that or has a large advertising campaign is always one to be skeptical of.
I installed it on a virtual machine to determine what this program was about, and if it was even safe to install on your PC. I used Windows XP Mode in Windows 7, and was a virtually fresh install, except for a couple of programs which I had installed earlier (Rhapsody and SwissKnife), nothing unusual.
Doublemyspeed.com CyberDefender
The program installation was smooth, and nothing unusual appeared to try and install with the program. All the program does, as they sort of explain in the radio ad, is scan for issues. All this program does is scan the Registry for issues. Sounds a lot like the much more respected and known CCleaner to me. I let the program scan, and a few minutes later, I had my results.
490 "errors" on a nearly fresh install of Windows XP. I expected a large or bloated number though; they want you to buy the program after all (you thought they'd let you clean it for free?). After a quick inspection of most of these errors, I found most are blank registry entries. Deleting all of these might speed up Windows. But of course, in order to clean it, you need to buy their software (a generally unacceptable practice these days... where's the 30 day free trial?).
If you attempt to fix the errors, you are directed to a website to buy the program for $40. But they also automatically throw in a $30 early-detection program, and a $15 backup CD. So you're looking at a checkout total of $85 if you're not careful to uncheck those additions.
CCleaner
So, how does this program stack up against the well-known, and free, CCleaner?
CCleaner doesn't actually provide a count of how many issues it found, but it is nowhere near the 490 that CyberDefender found. The difference? CCleaner isn't haphazardly deleting all empty keys from the registry. Its identifying specific issues which won't likely harm your system.
The verdict
Don't waste your time with Doublemyspeed.com. It won't actually speed up your PC unless you fork over cash first, and even after that, you don't know what you're getting. Although I'm not a huge fan of CCleaner, it's free and does the same things Doublemyspeed.com CyberDefender sets out to do.
Other recommended anti-malware programs:
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (one of the best IMO)
- SUPERAntiSpyware
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Comments(2) : 2344 Views :
Jan 04, 2010
That is true, and you need to be careful of those sites too. Doublemyspeed doesn't appear to do that fortunately though. You still have to pay for this program if you want to remove what it found, which in my opinion isn't worth the price (at least not to this company for its poor business practices). If you really wanted to check and remove viruses, even Norton, and McAfee have free options.
Jan 27, 2010 by coreno : 
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Hi again. I just wanted to add that some of these sites will automatically download malware then charge you to remove it. I can't remeber what the site was called but they had a tv commercial claiming similar results to those you have mentioned. You would visit the site and it would install a malicious script that would slow your pc. If you forked over the money for there product they would simply remove the malicious code they installed.
Jan 13, 2010 by bignfat :
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