Detecting and Removing Spyware

By James Langston-

Spyware spies own your browsing habits while collecting personal information to be used for illegal purposes.- Spyware infects most computers within the first few minutes on the internet.-

You can spend a lot of money on spyware programs while most attract spyware to your pc.- There are many free programs that will protect your pc.-

If you go to www.spywareguide .com they have a free spyware scanner that will remove infections on your pc.-

Spybot Search Destroy is a good program to use if you understand how it works.

You can download it here www.safer-networking.org/en/download/ .

You install the tea timer for constant protection. Anytime a program tries to write to the registry it alerts you and you can approve or deny it.- I also run adaware se personal in conjunction with Spybot. It can be found at www.lavasoftusa.com/ .-

Microsoft has its own answer to spyware called Microsoft Defender. It can be downloaded at www.download.com/3000-12771_4-10598014.html from download dot com.

It doesn;t remove spyware well but it prevents it from getting on your system that is why it is called defender. The coolest thing about defender is the software explorer under tools. You can remove startup items and stop services without a reboot.-

Each of the programs can be used together. You need to install the updated the definitions for the programs to work. Spyware is written daily so keeping your computer up to date is as important as keeping your virus protection up to date.- There are many programs out there but these are the ones I prefer. I work on a lot of computers and a lot of the paid for programs cause more damage than good.-

Ways to determine if you have spyware are a slow computer, pop ups, and slow booting up.- A way to check if you have spyware on startup is running msconfig and checking your startup menu to see if anything is starting you dont wont to start. If you see a program with nothing written in the column a good bet is that it is spyware or virus.-

Spyware is a small program or piece of code that is secretly installed on your computer and designed to spy on your online activity and/or personalinformation. Although not all spyware is used for illegal purposes, most of it canbe very dangerous due of its ability to record keystrokes, take snapshots of ourPC screen, and monitor everything we do online. Spyware that is used tocommit crimes is called crime-ware.-

A computer should be scanned at least once a week. Most programs can be set up on a schedule.-

The best way to avoid spyware is to only go to trusted sites.

Article by James Langston Corporate Desktop Technician.