Spyware

Spyware or Adware is at its basic form advertising.  Spyware infections are normally actual programs that most of the time you install yourself.  The initial way most spyware infects your system is when you download a program from the internet and don't pay attention to the other options that are installed along with your desired program.  Common extra programs that are installed are News.net and others.  These extra programs are integrated into the install almost always by the company who created the intended program.  Now before you start throwing everything on your desk at your system let me state this.  The reason most companies bundle these extra programs with the main program is for funding.  These advertising companies offer to pay these programming companies to insert their advertising programs into the main one.  It is like stated before advertising or sponsoring.  Now most software companies will at least let you select what things to install initially.  So if you are careful when initially installing your desired program you can avoid a lot of problems later on.

There are other programs that you download that are just spyware to begin with.  Things like desktop search assistants, pretty much any kind of search toolbar, and a myriad of other free "enhancing programs".  Now there are many many spyware free programs out there.  However you must be very careful what you download and install.

Symptoms of spyware

As with viruses there are many symptoms of spyware but they are usually more noticeable.  Your system will become noticeably slower.  If you have a few spyware infections then it might not seem abnormally slow.  But just like hairs in a clog, the more you have the worse the clog.  You also might get an extraordinary amount of popups being displayed while browsing.  And even when you might not be browsing the web at all.  Your system might also completely lock up and stop functioning.  Your internet connection might also seem to slow down.  All of these signs could mean you are infected with spyware.

Ways to check for infections

Noticing the symptoms of spyware infections will pretty much let you know that you are infected.

Here is a place that will check to see if you are infected with spyware.

PestPatrol Scanner

If you are infected with spyware it can be a very time consuming to remove all of the infections.  With medium to heavy infections many hours or work would be required to remove the infections in a home environment. And even after that all of the infections might not be completely removed. 

In all spyware cases we recommend bringing the system into a computer professional for repair.  Improper removal of spyware programs can corrupt windows to the point where you will not be able to startup windows at all.  There are also cases where the spyware infections had corrupted windows to the point where the system had to be completely erased and have windows reinstalled.  As a side note if a reload does need to be done we can backup all of your data before erasing the drive.  However it is also recommended that you backup your data at regular intervals.