After taking the time to acquire and install a program, it makes sense to utilize as many of its features as you can. Unfortunately, when becoming familiar with a program it is easy to overlook some of its features. This is especially true with SpyBot Search & Destroy, which includes multiple layers of protection for your system along with its main purpose of cleaning out spyware infections. The Immunize feature is possibly overlooked more than any other feature.
Immunize is located on the main menu and available for use in both "default" and "advanced" modes. This feature provides protection from sites that are known to install malware on visiting computers. From what I could discover, the URL for each of these sites is added to the "Restricted Zone" in Windows "Internet Options". With this in mind, you might want to increase the level of security for this "zone". You could go as far as a custom level in which any and everything is disabled.
Click the Immunize button and you will be greeted by a dialog screen similar to this.
Over 14,000 bad guys blocked, an impressive number I'm sure. Also notice that I have overlooked Immunize once again. When last updated another 252 sites were added!
Click the "OK" button on the "Warning" dialog to see the main Immunize window. The progress bar indicates a check that SpyBot runs when the Immunize shield icon is clicked on the main menu. The results of this check are shown on the "Warning" dialog box and below the progress bar on the main Immunize screen.
To give your computer a shot in the arm click the green cross/plus icon on the tool strip located just below the title bar of the Immunize screen. This time you can watch the progress bar as the immunization process occurs. The check again button tests to make sure all items were added successfully.
When the task has completed, this Information dialog box pops up. Just click the "OK" button.
When the information dialog box is gone you can see that the information below the progress bar has been updated and the "i" in the blue circle has changed to a check mark in a green circle. This completes the immunize function but not this article. There is yet another layer of protection accessible from this screen. This feature can be seen by viewing in full screen, by clicking the "Hide this information" link, or by using the vertical scroll bar to the right of the progress bar.
Titled simply "bad download blocker" this feature is enabled simply by clicking the check box indicated by the arrow toward the left of the screen. If already enabled, clicking on this box clears the check mark and disables blocking.
The arrow on the right side indicates the button you click to access the options for this feature. These options modify the behavior of the blocking routine. It will block sites without notification, let you know when it is blocking a site or ask whether or not you want the site blocked. Choose whichever option you prefer but definitely take advantage of these security layers.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
