What is Spyware / Adware?
Spyware is simply any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge, although in many ways this is illegal there are also methods of making such things lawful. Such methods are now being widely recognised by many organisations nowadays that even many trustworthy enterprises are getting in the act to make few amounts of money by allowing such things on there products, services and sites.
What does Spyware Do?
Spyware secretly gathers information about the user then sends it to advertisers or other interested parties in the background of an open Internet connection, Many people are worried that this can be Credit Card Numbers or similar information, but most of the time it is more likely to be Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers, Email Addresses, etc, but this does not make it any less likely to gather those private and confidential information. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus, clicking on a banner ad or even installing a new program.
Sometimes this Spyware is used to display some kind of advertising while the program is running. This kind of Spyware is called Adware, but even Adware now is becoming its own category by just presenting annoying advertisements.
The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can show up as pop-up windows, banner ads, or may even add unwanted plug-ins to your web browser. Browser hijacking Spyware can reset your browser's home page, add links to your bookmarks, or add arbitrary "yellow highlighter" advertising links into every web site you visit.
Even if you discover your computer has a Spyware applications running in the background, it can be hard to remove from your computer. Often the program leaves behind code that is missed by the standard add/remove function of your operating system that allows it to re-install itself at a later time.
Thankfully there are software programs that can detect and remove most kinds
of adware and spyware, some of them are free and can be found from the sites
below.
SpyBot Search & Destroy
There are many reasons why SpyBot Search and Destroy is one of the best available software around for removing adware and spyware, one of which has to be the price tag of. nothing; it is completely free (with a voluntary donation requested).
SpyBot's user interface looks something similar to Microsoft Outlook's left-side "Outlook bars." The Excludes page shows an extensive list of spyware, key loggers, Trojans, and so on, and here you can specify items you don't want removed. The Tools page includes a number of utilities not found in any of the competition's software, such as a list of Browser Helper Objects in your system.
Besides finding spyware, SpyBot can check for system problems (faulty Uninstall information, broken links, and so on) and history lists that record information you may not want stored.
While it may not be the slickest piece of software, it certainly cleans the spyware out. Additionally, the product has an "immunize" feature, which prevents the same spyware and adware from ending up on your box. All in all SpyBot Search & Destroy is not a bad tool.
I would Suggest everyone to download PepiMK Software's SpyBot Search & Destroy or Lavasoft's Ad-Aware due to the fact that it actually manages to destroy spyware and adware which it detects without leaving much detritus behind. As many times I have found other programmes, 1st of all don't detect all spyware and adware and even if they did most wont remove them successfully, sometimes leaving them to come back in the future or even in disastrous conditions delete other important files in your computer making you machine unstable or unusable.
