MacScan Software offers an application that scans your hard drive for spyware and that cleans up the traces of your Web browsing. Neat. But before you dole out that $25 for this Mac OS X application, you might want to check out this review. MacWorld's Mark H. Anbinder tried out MacScan 2.1 and came up with the following conclusion: there's no real need for the said software.

Although MacScan delivers exactly what it advertises, it runs really slow. Unlike anti-virus apps, this software rescans files it has previously scanned eventhough the files haven't been modified since the last scan. But the biggest issue with MacScan is its necessity. As Anbinder wrote, "Of the 40-plus threats listed on the MacScan Web site, for example, many apply only to OS 9."

With regards to the cleaning up of the Web history, cache, and cookies, one can already configure their browsers to not collect them, making it unnecessary to have a separate application to erase browser traces.

Eventhough the MacScan "takes care of its business reasonably well", its functionality can be carried on by Mac users for free. Maybe when Mac OS X users get more malware threatening their OS, then this application may come in handy. But for now, we can keep that 25 bucks and save it for the next 'must have' software.