Spy Sweeper: Encourages Users to Ask for Admin Privileges
I just reverted my working machine's login to be a mere User, after adding myself to the Administrators group for a little while to do some maintenance. Among other things, I installed Webroot's Spy Sweeper, the latest adware prevention tool that seems to hold top honors with those who evaluate such products. (I use multiple such tools, but only one at a time for real time protection. Fights between adware protection software I don't need!)
After removing my Administrators membership I rebooted and was warmly greeted with this dialog:
My initial reaction was that, well, this is a system-level program that need to be pertty intimate with the system, so okay, this isn't so bad. But configure it “to run using the credentials of the local administrative account“? Do they mean RunAs? What am I as a typical user supposed to find in the Windows help system to do this?
But it gets worse. Clicking the Help button gives this information. Note the juicy tidbits that I've emphasized:
Understanding the Error about User Accounts
To access Spy Sweeper using Windows 2000 or XP, you must have Administrator privileges for the user account that you use to log in to your computer. If you do not have Administrator privileges, you will not be able to start Spy Sweeper.
If your user account does not have Administrator privileges, you will see the following error when you try to start Spy Sweeper.
To resolve the problem, contact your system administrator to see if your user account can have Administrator privileges.
I beg your pardon? To use your product that protects my system from adware you're telling me I have to make my system more susceptible to both adware attacks and many other attacks? Hell-LOOOOOO!
Spy Sweeper: Uninstalled.