Free Spyware Software

When you turn on your computer, does it act like it needs a coffee to wake up? When you surf around the Internet, are you bombarded with pop-up windows? Does your computer freeze up or turn off for no apparent reason?

Before you decide to throw your monitor out of the nearest window, there may be a number of solutions to fix these problems that won’t require you having a degree in computer technology.

There are two primary ways to maintain your computer’s performance, and the maintenance should be done once a week or more. First, acquire and use software that will help you clean and protect your computer, and second, know how to use the programs already in your computer to keep it’s engines running smooth.

SOFTWARE

The software solutions below will not cost you any money, nor will they take you much of your time to download, understand, and implement:

1) Virus Protection - Avast AntiVirus is an excellent free program to guard yourself against Trojans, Worms, and Hacks.

2) Spyware - AdAware and Spybot are terrific free programs for eliminating pop-ups and other wares from your computer. It is recommended that you use them both, as one may find problems that the other may not … a great one-two punch to protect yourself.

3) Registry Cleaners - WinASO Registry Optimizer is a great program for repairing your computer registry. The free version allows you to clean or repair ten items at a time, so you will have to re-run it numerous times if you have many problems.

4) Internet Speed - If you use dial-up, or have a computer the size of a calculator, you may wish to use RamBooster to help give you the best speed possible for the limitations you have.

Go to http://www.download.com for these and other great resources.

PROGRAMS

Now that you’ve taken out the garbage, you should keep the place neat and tidy by using the programs already existing in your computer. Once again, you should do this once a week:

1) Clear your Internet History

2) Defrag your Computer

3) Use a Firewall

You can find the programs that will do this for you by looking in the System Tools or Security Center sections of your computer.

Another option for those of you who’ve got smoke billowing out of the back of your computer, with no seemingly useful solution in sight; you may wish to look at the System Restore feature that your computer may have. This allows you to revert back to a state when your computer actually worked well. It doesn’t work all the time, by it is an option … and not an end all be all … use it only when absolutely necessary.

Austin Culley is the Chief Operating Officer for Oil-Net.Com Inc.
http://www.oil-net.com

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Most people believe that once they have anti-virus software installed on their computer, they are adequately protected from malicious intruders into their PC.
This is a serious mistake.

Viruses can ruin your computer, but some spyware can ruin your life.
Some of the more malicious forms of spyware are capable of collecting keystrokes (”key-loggers”) from your computer and transmit them back via the Internet to the cyber-criminals who installed it on your computer without you even knowing it. Another way is that these cyber-criminals can gain access to your computer via a ‘back door’ and obtain your personal information.

The information sent back across the Internet could contain account numbers and passwords to your bank accounts, credit card numbers, including verification codes, and highly sensitive personal information such as your Social Security number. The result is that these cyber-criminals could drain your bank accounts and rack up enormous charges on your credit cards before the banks or credit card companies have time to warn you about unusual activities within your accounts.

In the case where these people get a hold of your Social Security number, they can assume your identity and cause a host of hair-raising problems, such as taking out a mortgage on your house, or even selling your house or conduct criminal activities under your name. I some cases these problems may take years to get straightened out.

Fortunately most of the spyware that can be introduced to your computer is not that malicious. The vast majority of software that is secretly put onto your system consists of small pieces of information, called “cookies” which are designed to keep track of your browsing habits and enable website owners to customize the display and advertisements on their sites according to your fields of interest. Still, these advertising intrusions can also take on annoying proportions in the form of unwanted pop-up ads, useless toolbars and other modifications to your browser’s look.

The best way to protect your computer against this type of unwanted software is to install software that is specifically designed to detect and remove these types of intrusions. There are a number of anti spyware software packages out there, some better than others, but the main key is to make sure that the software you obtain is updated frequently, preferably automatically via the Internet. It is highly recommended that you yourself perform a scan of the computer regularly, at least weekly.

Many anti-spyware packages can be programmed to perform these scans automatically. Usually the default time of such software to do this scan is when you boot up the system first thing in the morning. However, this is also the time you will be most active with the computer, and performing a spyware scan and an anti virus scan could slow your PC down quite a bit. It might be better to schedule these scans to be run during off times, such as lunch or dinner hours when you least use the computer.

Scanning the computer only removes the nuisance software after it already has been installed. It is of course much better to try to prevent such intrusions before they happen.

One way is to not to plug your computer directly into the modem, but install a router between your modem and your PC. This will stop many of the attacks, but not all of them. In addition to that, the installation of a firewall presents an extra barrier to intruders. Also, make sure that you regularly update your operating system, as many of the security leaks of the software are constantly being addressed and fixed.

None of these preventive measures are foolproof, but if you combine all these techniques, you may be spared a lot of grief and annoyances.

Bill Stafford has been operating a computer sales and support company for over 20 years. For more information and tips for your PC or the Internet, visit his site at:
http://inforesources.wordpress.com

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If you have a fast system such as a Pentium 4 with more than adequate resources such as a very large hard disk and ample amount of RAM it is possible that you will not notice the presence of adware or Spyware before it is too late. Spyware is a program that is let loose on the Internet by marketing companies and advertising companies to gather information about users and their Internet browsing habits. However, this is the safest Spyware can get. There are some cranks who Spread Spyware to gather even more personal information such as you credit card number and other information that will allow them to use the card such as the CVV number. You may also have online bank accounts and use your username and password to gain access to your account. Spyware can record all information entered via the keyboard and the pointing device and send this information to the person who made the program. This is why it is important to have anti Spyware on your system and scan it at least twice a week and then run a free Spyware removal program to ensure your safety.

Remove The Spyware Before It removes Your Information

While Spyware operates in the background of the operating system it slows the system down in two ways. First it takes up a lot of processor time by scanning the system every few minutes and recording the information it needs. It does this by slowing down the other front-end programs while it executes its own executables. Second, it fills up the registry with information and this slows down the system even further. The Spyware does not make entries in the registry on its own. This is done by the operating system. Since the registry records all the activity on the computer it automatically records all the activity by the Spyware as well. When the programs refer to the registry for information they have to scan the entire registry for it. The larger the registry the longer it will take to scan. This is how the system gradually slows down to a crawl.

Spyware Can Be Removed Completely

This is not the end of the line. The registry can be cleaned of all this useless data. First it will be important to run some free anti Spyware program to detect and remove the Spyware from the system. Then the registry will have to be cleaned of all the activity the Spyware undertook. This data may run into tens of thousands of entries. Many free Spyware removal tools and free Adware removal software is the special software that is needed for the task of cleaning the registry. Some of the good software are yahoo Spyware removal tool, Kazaa Spyware Removal utility and a host of other free Spyware removal tools that do a great job of freeing the system of Spyware and Adware and improve the functioning of the PC.

Author is admin and technical expert associated with development of computer security and performance enhancing software like Anti Spyware Registry Cleaner, Window Cleaner, Anti Spam Filter etc. More information can be found at http://www.pcmantra.com
To know about the Anti Spyware visit at :http://www.pcmantra.com/anti-spyware.htm

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