We all know that viruses are a problem for computers. They can damage files on your PC, block Internet access, cause lockups, and be a general nuisance unless you keep your Antivirus solution up-to-date. Well, we have a contender for second place in the Obnoxious Intruder Department: Spyware, also known as adware.

It may not damage files or format your hard drive, at least not that I have seen—yet, but it can lock up your machine, slow down your Internet access (or disable it entirely), make your PC sluggish and do odd things like pop up your dialer every five seconds. It can be all-around irritating.

Case in point: you have a DSL connection, so you are always connected to the Internet. The only application you have open is Word, and you are typing a letter to someone. Suddenly, a box appears in front of the letter you were working on, and it’s an ad for something—maybe a new car. You click the X in the top right corner to get rid of it and go back to typing. A few seconds later, Boom! A different ad pops up and blocks your view. Netscape Navigator is not running. You never started Internet Explorer. Yet somehow your work continues to be interrupted by more annoying ads, and you don’t know where they are coming from.

Here’s another: You have a dial-up connection, and as soon as Windows finishes loading, your dialer pops up. You click on the “Cancel” button, but the dialer pops back up seconds later. In fact, it appears at least ten more times before it finally seems to give up trying to access your Internet account. What’s going on? You run Norton Antivirus and perform a full system scan of your PC, but no viruses are found. Your computer is probably infested with spyware! Time to call the exterminator!

“But,” you wonder, “How did it get there?” Do you remember that cute little weather utility you downloaded and installed? Or, how about that useful web searching toolbar you added to Internet Explorer? Do you use Kazaa, Comet Cursor, or Bonsai Buddy? These are just a few of the hundreds of spyware-linked applications. You have to be careful when installing things off the Internet. The product you are installing might be adding a secondary application and not tell you about it. Or, it might mention it somewhere, but if you are not reading the fine print you could miss it. This little secondary application will track your Internet usage and send ads your way based on your web browsing preferences.

So, let’s get rid of this junk. Two useful tools for eliminating spyware are Spybot, Search and Destroy, and Ad-aware. Both are free, and together they do a good job of cleaning up the problems caused by spyware. Spybot can be obtained at http://www.safer-networking.org/ . Just follow the links to download it for free (you can make a donation if you wish). The downloaded file is the installer; just double-click it to install Spybot. An icon will be added to your desktop, if you wish, and double-clicking it will run the program. Have Spybot search for problems, and when it has found them, check all of the items to select them for removal and click on “fix selected problems.” While you are still connected to the Internet you can tell Spybot to look for updates. Make sure you select all the available updates, and choose the U.S. download location (the European location sometimes will not work).

Next go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ to download the freeware version of Ad-aware. Install and run it the same way you did Spybot; it can be updated over the Internet too. Both products put the deleted items in a kind of quarantined location so you can undo the removal of individual spyware items if you want to—but why would you? Some programs, like the newest version of Kazaa, will not run if it detects its spyware has been removed. If you don’t mind having some spyware on your computer in order to keep your favorite program, that’s up to you.

Once you have run both Spybot and Ad-aware and removed all the junk you should notice an improvement in your computer’s performance. Just remember to use caution the next time you download and install a utility off the Internet. They don’t all contain spyware, but if you are unsure about your most recent install, just run Spybot and Ad-aware. They will let you know if you have acquired any new intruders, and you can mark them for removal.

-Bill Holmes, Technician