Dealing with Spyware -

In this series of articles we will be covering Spyware. What Spyware is, What Spyware does, and how to stop Spyware infesting your computer.

Removing Spyware can be tricky. However there are a lot of tools out there to assist you in keeping your computer free from Spyware. Some are free and some charge a fee. We can not really recommend one over another. Most have similar features and do the same job. You will need to find a Spyware Removal Program that you are comfortable with and does the job.

Before you begin

It is always worth using an online virus scanner to check you computer for viruses or trojan horse programs BEFORE and AFTER you use a Spyware Removal Program. If your computer has been infected the virus scanner you are running might not give you a true picture of your computers health. A good online virus scanner can be found on the Symantec website.
  

Spyware Removal Programs

As we said there are lots of Spyware Removal Programs around. You can try a search using Google or your usual Search Engine.

Some of these Spyware Removal Programs will charge you a licence fee before you can use them while others may give you a cut down version for free hoping that you will upgrade.

What Program?

I tried two Spyware Removal Programs that I picked at random from a search on the 'Google' Search Engine.

The first I tried was the free download of NoAdware. NoAdware provides a 45 day trial version free. However this download will only tell you if you have any Spyware installed. You have to pay $29.95 (US) for the full version to actually remove the spyware. However NoAdware was very easy to use and did detect quite a bit on my machine.

I then tried Spybot - Search and Destroy available on the Cnet website. Spybot - Search and Destroy is 100% free and works very well. I am not going to review the product in full here. If you want an independent review you can read the one on the Cnet website. Spybot - Search and Destroy worked very well and removed several items from my computer.

At home I run the following to protect my Family PC. Remember to check the licence of any free programs as they can not (usually) be used at work.

------ What I run--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AVG AntiVirus
- Free AVG Anti-Spyware - Free
Spybot - Search & Destroy - Free
WinCleaner - Free
Zone Alarm - Free
------ What I run---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Running these kinds of Programs should form part of a regular PC Safety Schedule. Along with AntiVirus programs Spyware Removal Programs can only help if they are kept updated and used regularly.

We hope you found this part useful. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve any of our articles or tutorials then please let us know.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the second part of our 'Spyware' series of articles. Written by Alan Lloyd on behalf of WWW Security Services. You are free to reproduce this tutorial in its entirety with this statement and links left intact. You must click on the link below and use the code provided.

Click here to get the code to display this tutorial on your site.