The threat of adware should not be underestimated. It can be a very destructive force to reckon with on your computer. Adware is usually a nuisance, bugging you with time consuming pop-ups and junk mail. However it can leak spyware into your system and spyware is a very serious threat. This is why you should be watching for signs of an adware infection. And find and destroy all adware files that are on your computer. Also you should take steps to prevent adware from entering your computer again in the future.
Most computer users commonly download adware themselves when downloading free programs from the Internet. Websites that offer free games, videos, music, wallpapers and screensavers etc are most probably sending you adware with your download. This is why, when possible, you should avoid downloading freeware as you may end up downloading more than you bargained for.
Once adware sneaks into your computer it hides itself within program files which makes it hard for the computer user to detect. Adware will then proceed to bombard the computer user with pop-ups tailored to the users browsing history. You must not click these pop-up adverts, however tempting they may seem. The purpose of these pop-ups is to bring the user to other websites with more adware and possibly even spyware.
Spyware is a much larger threat than adware. Once in your system spyware records each and every keystroke you make. It mines data from this and will have gathered lots of your personal information like credit card details, passwords, bank account details etc. This information is then communicated back to the creator of the spyware program. Spyware and adware both take up a lot of your system resources and hence you must see to it that you have enough anti-spyware and adware protection running on your computer.
It is quite risky to surf the Internet without using adware and spyware prevention programs. While you use your computer daily with other programs you cannot run against spyware and adware because they will strike you first. If you already have a infection on your computer, you cannot be infected again.
To cut the risks, use a privacy protection software like Ad-Aware. This software will track and find all the Adware and spyware on your computer and after removing them, will make sure that your computer is safe from future infections. You can download Ad-Aware from Lavasoft USA website. After installing Ad-Aware, you should run the software to scan your computer and then you may choose whether you want to scan or clean the registry. The latter option is more appropriate and is more effective.
There are many sites online that warns users about the dangers of Adware and spyware. While all these sites are useful, it is crucial to download a reliable anti-spyware and anti-adware software. You must download anti-spyware and adware protection programs from a reputed company as earlier damage your computer may be caused by using the infected files.
Once you have downloaded your anti-spyware and adware protection programs, you must run them to scan your computer. Before doing so, make sure that the utilities run in any direction. Such utilities will not do much good if they are composed of nothing but malicious programs. Never run a utility if it detects no signs of an infection.
3. What Can Adware and Spyware Scan and Removal Tools Do For Your Computer?
They can scan your computer and search for unauthorized programs that have installed themselves. They can remove such unwanted elements using a file definitions database and a set of rules that a user can use to generate an list of valid programs that can be installed. After that, the scanner can show a list of applications that it has located using its own rules and then you can choose either to remove the entries or keep them. The other option is to instruct the scanner to keep an eye out for any applications that are uninvited but may still be located in the system.
3.1 How Do Spyware and Adware Sweeps the Computer?
The most common and easiest way is to make use of the Windows “Frame” Pager and UNIX “RT” Alarm Pro’s. These pagers allow the user to send unreasonable amounts of data to the target computer and it automatically scans the device and receives a list of entries. Because the list is huge, it will take up more CPU time on the target computer making it slower. Since the target computer is now scanning extremely slowly, it is easy to bombard it with a huge amount of packets of data.
