You may have heard of the term "spyware" but may not really know what it is. Spyware is software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, personal data collection, or system configuration changes, WITHOUT your consent or knowledge. Five common symptoms of spyware are:
1. Pop-up ads occur on safe websites such as www.google.com or when you don't have a browser window open.
2. Your computer has slowed down.
3. A new toolbar appears in your browser window that you didn't install.
4. Your computer has started to crash more often.
5. Your homepage in your browser has changed.
With these symptoms causing lowered productivity spyware removal is crucial. Removal of spyware can be done with various free software programs. The two programs we will look at are: Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3 and McAfee Antivirus 8.0. Assuming your computer has Windows XP both of these programs are available for your use.
Spybot can be obtained via download at www.download.com. After downloading Spybot the install is rather straightforward - just continue through the prompts. After the install Spybot will automatically start. At this point click OK, then NEXT on the subsequent windows that appear, and click CHECK FOR UPDATES after that. Once the updates are found, choose to install all updates. Now that Spybot is ready to remove any unwanted spyware from your systems click 'Check for problems'. This may take up to 30 minutes to run. Once finished select 'Fix selected problems' and YES to the next dialog box. Now your computer is free of most spyware.
McAfee Antivirus 8.0 also has some anti spyware capabilities. McAfee can be downloaded from www.und.edu/dept/itss/security/. With the default configuration that is installed with McAfee it will detect and remove spyware when the weekly virus scan runs and also protect from certain spyware applications from being installed.
Prevention of spyware is key to your fight against these unwanted programs. Four steps that you can take to protect against spyware are:
1. Make sure to run your Windows updates.
2. Use Microsoft Windows built-in firewall or another firewall program.
3. Run Spybot weekly to remove any new infections.
4. Surf and download more cautiously.
a. Only download from sites you trust.
b. Read all warnings and license agreements with any software you download.
c. Don't click "AGREE" or "OK" to close a window. To close the window click the red "x" in the top right corner of the window or press the Alt + F4 keys on your keyboard.
After you have taken the above steps, your computing experience will be safer and less frustrating in the future.