Using the Internet can be a wonderfully rewarding and enjoyable experience. The only problem is that it can also open your computer up to infection with spyware. Although most of us regularly hear and viruses and trojans through the media, spyware can be much more harmful, and it’s quite possible that you don’t even know it’s present on your computer. It’s basically advertising spyware that gets installed on your computer, without your consent of knowledge.
The tough part is that spyware can present itself in almost as many different ways as there are spyware programs. Most of the time you’ll only become conscious of spyware when ‘popup’ advertisements start appearing on your computer all the time. These are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg, although they can be annoying enough all by themselves. You can find yourself with extra toolbars you don’t want, you computer can slow down to a crawl, your home page will change, and worst of all, your computer may lock-up or crash, causing you to lose precious data.
The first step in removing spyware from your computer is to find out if you have any! Chances are that...