Sales of Spyware Doctor and other security products end, support to continue for existing users.
Symantec
has quietly announced the end of life the of
PC Tools
security product lines, including
PC Tools Spyware Doctor
,
PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
and
PC Tools Internet Security
. Users with existing subscriptions will be supported for the length of those subscriptions, but will need to move to other solutions once they expire.
Other parts of the
PC Tools
family, including
Registry Mechanic
and other optimisation tools, will continue to operate under the
PC Tools
brand name.
PC Tools
was founded in 2003, with its
Spyware Doctor
line a prominent name in the anti-spyware boom of the mid-2000s. The firm was
acquired
by
Symantec
in 2008.
PC Tools
products have made regular appearances in VB100 comparatives over the last five years or so; for a time before the
Symantec
acquisition, they included the
VirusBuster
anti-malware engine, which is also now defunct.
The company also created the
Threat Expert
malware analysis system, which
continues to operate unchanged
(at least at the time of writing). Other
PC Tools
offerings, such as the
Mac
solution
iAntiVirus
and the standalone behavioural monitoring system
ThreatFire
, seem to have faded from view.
The switch was pulled on May 18th, according to a subtle
announcement
on the
PC Tools
website. An FAQ on the decision is
here
Posted on 24 May 2013 by
John Hawes
Leave a Reply