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Keyloggers are sneaky little programs that can record everything you type, including usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information. Although antivirus software is often able to detect and eliminate such programs once you're infected, they're not foolproof. KeyScrambler Personal promises to encrypt your keystrokes at the level of your keyboard driver and decrypt them when they reach your browser so they're visible to you. Sounds good in theory, but does it work? We can't guarantee that it's perfect, but we can say that it worked just fine when we tried it.
Obviously, if we wanted to see if KeyScrambler Personal could guard against keyloggers, we'd have to install a keylogger on our machine. We did, made sure it was logging our keystrokes, and then installed KeyScrambler Personal. The program appeared as an icon in our system tray; right-clicking on it brought up an options menu, which let us set a hot key for enabling and disabling the program and specify how we wanted the program to display when in use. We set about typing in Firefox, one of KeyScrambler Personal's supported browsers, and a small box appeared that displayed the scrambled version of the text we typed. When we opened our keylogger to see what it had captured, there was all our scrambled text in place of what we'd actually typed. It's important to remember that KeyScrambler Personal doesn't encrypt everything you do; we were still able to view the Web sites we'd visited and search engine results. But text that we'd actually typed, such as in e-mails and in-browser chats, was indeed encrypted. An online Help file gives a thorough overview of the program's use. Overall, KeyScrambler Personal was easy to use and it seemed to be effective. It's worth checking out if you want to keep what you type safe from prying eyes.
KeyScrambler Personal installs and uninstalls without issues.
Publisher's Description
From QFX Software:
KeyScrambler Personal is a free plug-in for your Web browser that protects everything you type from keyloggers. It defeats keyloggers by encrypting your keystrokes at the keyboard driver level, deep within the operating system. When the encrypted keystrokes reach your browser, KeyScrambler then decrypts them so you see exactly the keys you've typed. Keyloggers can only record the encrypted keys, which are completely indecipherable. Unlike anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that depend on recognition to remove keyloggers that they know about, KeyScrambler will protect you from both known and unknown keyloggers. What's more, KeyScrambler provides protection without getting in your way. You don't have anything to learn about the program and you don't have to do anything differently, but with KeyScrambler your important personal information will be a whole lot safer.
What's new in this version: Version 2.9.1 adds support for Firefox 10 and 11.
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All versions:
4.0 starsout of 520 votes
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Current version:
4.6 starsout of 19 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Great addition to your security tool-kit!"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Works great
Extra layer of protection
Light weight - Small footprint on system resourcesCons
The bar sometimes gets in the way, but it is easy enough to move.
Summary
Great product, I recommend to everyone.
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"Does exactly as advertised"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Small, unobtrusive, doesn't ask anything of the user
Cons
none at this time
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"Good firstline defense. It does help I think...lol"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Works in the background Doesn't use a lot of resourses
Cons
Sometimes I have had problems getting the newer version I don't know if that is because of my IP or the site I am trying to get it from.
Summary
All in all good product but please keep upgrading to keep the bad guys away
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"seems to work most of the time"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
seems to work fine most of the time
Cons
it messed up input to an eBay window field and I had to disable it for that once. I have an anti-keylogger program in addition to this one so I didn't feel unprotected.
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"Wouldn't leave home (electronically) without it..."
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Excellent idea; simple, straightforward app, designed to do one thing & do it well. Far as I know, works. Installs and runs without locking anything up or messing up my system. (Also uninstalls nicely if necessary). Does not hog resources or slow my system down. Love the extra security.
Cons
I use Firefox a lot, but occasionally revert to IE (which works better for filling out USPS customs forms online!); I sometimes find it necessary to install the app twice, once for each browser.
Summary
Try it, you'll like it! If not, installs & uninstalls cleanly, so nothing to lose.
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"Most Reliable"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Simply works, no faults.
Cons
Not one that I've found
Summary
While I'm not familiar with other scramblers, I've been using this one since 2006 and unless I read about a better one for less than free I'm totally sold. At least check it out, but I'd advise downloading. The feature which isn't commonly known is that when you've done a search and don't want to spend time reading the entire article, you can tweak it to locate any word you type in it just appears on the page. Then if that's not the correct usage within the article, you merely have to press Control+G (Windows) to locate the next usage.
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"great item for being free"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
everything about it. people that complain it don't work are just to cheap to pay for the full services of the program the Free one does not encrypt a lot of things but the pro and premium version do so read before you leave negative feedback. the free program does everything it says it will
Cons
you have to pay to use it in Google chrome witch is bull crap who uses windows explorer anymore? windows explorer haves more exploits then yahoo chat back in it's ychat (protocol) day :) plain and simple windows explorer is probably the least secure browser in the world. anything that haves Microsoft in front of it sucks if i did not need windows i would not own it but it's the year 2012 windows is compatible with everything.
Summary
the program is great for being free. don't expect the free program to encrypt everything it does the minimum amount. pay for the full version if you want it to encrypt everything its 45$.
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"It Does What It's Supposed To Do!"
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Shows you what each of your keystrokes are changed to as it's happening.
Has display that can be placed in several different locations to your liking, and only appears when you are typing.
The display also alerts you to new versions so you can easily stay up to date.
When I first discovered KeyScrambler and installed it, I had problems getting it to work with my version of FireFox. I emailed support, and got a rapid response with a newer version that solved all problems.Cons
Don't know of any!
Summary
I think KeyScrambler is another excellent layer of protection while online and I'm considering purchasing the Pro version, even tho I don't use many of the covered apps, but to show my appreciation for the extra security the free version provides me in FireFox and IE(rarely used).
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"Works as advertised."
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
Very small footprint. I feel much safer having it on my system.
Cons
Sometimes the scrambled characters are actually typed - happens to me in gmail and win 7 location box.
Summary
The con is minor - almost not worth mentioning since it happens rarely.
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"(Free version) Works very well."
Version: KeyScrambler Personal 2.9.1
Pros
No noticable effect on browser speed
Cons
None that I can observe.
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