How to remove Spyware from your computer

First
off let's go over what spyware and ad-ware are, because there may be some confusion
about this; spyware (and ad-ware) are programs which are installed on your computer.
They are not viruses, and while several virus protection software companies
are starting to add features in their programs to help protect you from these
menaces, they are still not viruses.

Spyware programs are installed typically by 'free' software such as Weatherbug
or Kazaa. While you may be thinking "that's just not right, I'm going to
get those guys!" unfortunately when installing these programs you probably
didn't read the terms and conditions of the software, where you agreed to allow
"helper programs" to be installed. Don't worry too much about it,
most people don't read those, which is why the companies feel safe about putting
these clauses in there. Doesn't make it right, it just makes it legal.

Another source of these installations comes from security holes in web browsers
that allow websites to install programs without you knowing what happened. These
are more devious, and very illegal, but the result is the same; you have programs
installed on your computer that you don't want. This is also a very good reason
to stay on top of security updates for your browser of choice.

Spyware

Spyware is the term used for software programs which are installed on your
computer to keep track of your web-surfing habits and any other information
the creators of the program happened to want to gather. These programs hide
in the background and very rarely show themselves.

What the also do is use a great deal of your computer's resources and band-width
when connected to the Internet. If your computer is slowing down, or if your
web browsing is becoming slower, it maybe caused by these programs

Ad-ware

Ad-ware is the term used for software programs which also monitor your web
surfing habits, but respond directly to these habits by: replacing your home
page, installing browser tool bars, and popping up ads to take advantage of
your interests. Some even search through your text and word documents looking
for keyword interests. Again, rather nasty.

Ad-ware also uses a great deal of band-width and causes your computer to slow
down by running searches and connections to servers in the background and downloading
new ads to serve to you.

An easy way to catch an Ad-ware program is to notice which websites you are
on when a pop-up appears. For example if you are on Google.com, or even here
at D-A-L.com, and you see a pop-up, then you are infested with an Ad-ware program,
because these sites never use pop-up ads.

Getting Rid of them

Uninstalling these programs can be difficult. Using the Windows Uninstall utility
(if they even happen to be listed in there) you will find that they are back
right after you re-start the computer.

The creators know that as soon as you find out these programs are on your computer,
you are going to want them gone, so they come up with tricky ways of keeping
them on your computer as long as possible. The longer they are there, the more
money they can make off them. So the procedures for uninstalling them become
more complicated every year.

There are several programs out there which hunt these spyware programs and
get rid of them for you. The two best, that I have run across, are also free
to use.

Ad-Aware

Lavasoft has been battling spyware and ad-ware programs for several years,
and their utility works very well. It is easy to install, and to use. The personal
copy is free.

1. Download the Personal Edition
to your computer

2. Install the program (most of the time the defaults are fine, unless you
have a particular reason not to use them).

3. Run the program

Ad-Aware keeps up-to-date by contacting its home server and getting new definitions.
You can set this to happen automatically, or on demand. I prefer on-demand,
but you have to remember to do this periodically, or it will start missing them.

Clicking the Start button in Ad-Aware brings up the scanning options. For your
first run, just use the Smart Scan. It will check the most common areas for
spyware, and will also be much faster, giving you an idea of how the program
works.

If you are familiar with Virus Scanning programs, then their won't be any surprises
here. The Ad-Aware program scans your computer, finds malicious software and
presents you with a list of its findings along with some options for dealing
with them. I like the Remove option myself. Unfortunately there doesn't appear
to be one; when the program has stopped and is presenting you with the list,
you have three buttons on the bottom: Quarantine, Cancel and Next. To remove
the objects, you must check the boxes next to them, and then click on Next.
Doing this presents you with a count of the items which are about to be deleted,
once you confirm that you want them gone, the program starts deleting them.

If your computer is heavily infested, resign yourself to running this program
a few times before you expect to see all of the items gone. Also, Ad-Aware is
very hard on Cookies, and most of the time the list will have nothing but web-tracking
cookies.

Each of the items found by Ad-Aware is given a TAC-Rating. The TAC rating is
a method used by Ad-aware to determine the potential impact and danger of an
application, the system is based on a total of 10 points, 1 being the least
and 10 being the most threatening.

There are other, more aggressive programs out there, but I personally prefer
this program above the others I have used. They also make a very nice firewall
program as well.

Ad-aware, while a very good search-and-removal tool, doesn't protect you against
spyware or ad-ware. It helps after the fact. So I also use Windows Defender.

Windows
Defender

Microsoft's Defender is still in Beta, but it is a great program for keeping
the mal-wares out of your system.

1. Download the program from Microsoft's website

2. Install the program; There are three options in the installation, one is
the Automated update and "other" important things, one is the "Just
update definitions" and the last is the manual. I choose option 2 for my
computers.

3. Scan the computer.

Once started, Defender continues to run in the background guarding agaist possible
intrusions, which is great once you have recovered all of the RAM that the mal-ware
programs were using.

There are several options which you will want to go through and read the help
files on, but the one I like is the Scheduled Scan Time, so that I can start
the program and it will run at night, scanning and updating.

Again, if you are heavily infested with mal-ware, you are probably going to
have to run this program more than once, and its going to take a few hours.
So, go rent a good movie, start the program, and wait it out. Trust me, it is
worth it.

If you aren't on the Internet however, the program is just taking up RAM, so
I stop it unless I'm going to be on the Internet.

MSCONFIG

This isn't a mal-ware removal tool, it is just a Windows Utility that might
help discover if you have programs starting up, which you don't want starting
up. To use this program, go to Start->Run, and type in msconfig. Once started,
go to the StartUp tab and go through the list.

The best way to go through this list, is to open a browser, go to Google, and
type in the name of the item you are curious about and see what others say about
it, for example; when I did this for the article, I noticed one called SynTPLpr,
and thought it was a left over from the Norton installation, which was uninstalled
some time ago. But before I unchecked it, to keep it from starting up, I looked
it up on Google, and found that it was not a Synaptic utility, but required
by my laptop's mouse pad. So even if you are sure what it is, run a Google search
and make sure.

Google Bar

The Google Bar is good for keeping pop-ups from Popping, and fairly intelligent
about it as well. It is one of the better pop-up blockers out there, and again,
it is free.

If you continue to have problems with mal-ware, be sure to check our Help
Forum.