PC Tools Spyware Doctor doesn’t support 64-bit editions of Vista
By Jonathan Schlaffer
If you bought a new computer just recently and if you were very lucky or unlucky as the case may be, it may have come with the 64-bit version of Vista. While this will make the computer more efficient when running native 64-bit applications and allow you to address larger amounts of memory some applications that aren’t 64-bit compliant won’t run on it. Yes, even some 32-bit applications won’t run under a 64-bit environment even though they should.
One such example is Spyware Doctor. Whether you attempt to install the Premium Version or the free version that’s offered as part of the Google pack, the installer will fail with one error or another. The Google pack version tosses up the error "General Installation failure" or if it really wants to confuse you will say it couldn’t be installed because it detected another version already installed.
Some quick online research turned up that this error is quite common for 64-bit versions of Vista. At this point it just comes down to the "why?" Spyware Doctor is not compatible with 64-bit versions of Vista. One would think that the largest and one of the best providers of antimalware solutions would actually have a 64-bit compatible version ready.
I spoke with a developer friend of mine that says a possible reason PC Tools did this instead of simply saying that the software isn’t compatible with "this versions of Windows" is because they would have to take responsibility for it. Well, that doesn’t paint them in the best of light but it’s a possible explanation or it could just be a simple programming error. Whatever it is, it’s annoying.
As for when a version of Spyware Doctor will be ready, your guess is as good as mine. It would have been really great if I had known this ahead of time, before I replaced my ailing desktop and went for the 64-bit edition of Vista.
Now I have to rely on Windows Defender, I don’t trust that thing as far as I could throw it.
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April 25th, 2008
“Some quick online research turned up that this error is quite common for 64-bit versions of Vista. ”
True, but 64-bit versions of Vista are quite uncommon. What the PC Tools installer should probably do is detect that it’s being run on Vista64 and give you a “sorry” message. It’s a lot of work to develop a proper 64-bit application, as opposed to an application that runs in 32-bit compat mode and ignores the 64-bit world.
April 29th, 2008
Hi Jonathan,
I just thought I would let you know that we have another product that protects using behavioral technology, it’s called ThreatFire and it works on Vista 64-bit. It’s also completely free. Have a look and let me know what you think of it.
http://www.threatfire.com
Thanks,
Magida Ezzat
Communications Manager
PC Tools Software