What is Spyware? Well, in the words of Patrick Kolla, "In easy terms, spyware is software that transmits personally identifiable information from your computer to some place in the internet without your special knowledge."
What is Adware? Again, in the words of Mr. Kolla, "Adware is also often a side-effect of spyware, as both monitor you for a sole purpose ? delivering you advertisement that is especially tailored to your habits"
Both can harm you computer in various ways, such as annoying popups (that appear even after you disable windows messanger), browser hijacking and strange slowdowns, etc.
How can i check my system and remove spyware/adware from my computer? please follow the following steps to clean your computer of spybots, adware and the like.
1st Run LSP-Fix
2nd Run CWS smartkiller removal tool
3rd Run CWShredder check for updates and run
4th Run Spybot search and destroy
check for updates and install them then Check for problems and fix problems, Reboot if prompted at the end and fix problems after it scans on boot up, then go into immunize and immunize it, block bad pages silently and check the boxes down on the bottom to prevent hijacking
5th Run Adaware
update it, scan and delete the problems found
6th Run Spyware blaster and keep spyware from being installed, update first then apply the new ones
NOTE: if spyware blaster fails to start, install this and this
7th for even more protection, try spyware guard, it functions much like zonealarm, except for spybots, with an item in your tray, and will help in real-time spyware protection.
NOTE: if spyware guard fails to start, install this and this
8th Make sure your AntiVirus is up to date and do a full system scan. if you have no antivirus, you need to get AVG, a freeware antivirus that some people say rivals NAV.
9th make sure your firewall is up to date (to test your firewall, go here and run shields up!) and if you have no firewall, you need to get zonealarm
10th check your IE explorer settings (Tools>internet options>privacy) to make sure privacy is set on at least medium and security setting (Tools>internet options>security) is likewise and reset your homepage manually
Note: rember to keep all of these programs updated and run spybotsearch and destroy and adaware scans once a month at least.
11th If all else fails to fix your hijacking problems, run hijackthis and post its log on AT forums, in the meantime try
firefox, a great alternative to internet explorer that usually has less problems with spyware and hijacking
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