Problem with your PC? Check for Adware and Spyware for free

Following our recent post about keeping your computer secure for free there are a couple of other things you need to watch out for in the computing world that a firewall and antivirus may not protect you from.

Whilst these are not usually as severe as a virus or hacking attempt they can lead to a very slow computer, annoying popups adverts and a slow Internet connection. Often information about what you are looking at and sites you regularly visit are being passed to unscrupulous people to then spam you with adverts.

Spyware and Adware are usually to blame for this.

Adware is the lesser evil of the two. Often bundled in with free software, it pops up annoying adverts. Removing these adverts is relatively easy although it may render your “free” software unusable.

Spyware will monitor and report your viewing statistics for use by advertisers. Often installed without the users knowledge and can also be bundled with so called “free software”

Most of these unwanted items can be easily removed with the help of an adware or spyware remover. These come in all different software packages. Some are expensive some are not. Our preferred products are free for personal use and we would recommend that if your computer is running slow, and you have already got antvirus and firewall software installed the you should scan your computer regularly.

Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - Adware remover http://www.lavasoft.com

Spybot Search and Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org

 Both of these are free. As with antivirus and firewall software, these need to be updated regularly to be the most effective at destroying the adware or sypware.

Please be cautious when removing these items  - as previously mention some free software will not function when this is removed. Having said that you have to ask yourselves what kind company is providing software of this kind with these types of applications within them?