Millions of people all over the world have at least twenty eight different types of spyware infecting their PC’s. While most of these items are harmless and don’t pose much of a security risk, there are a number of type of spyware out there today that will do dangerous and malicious things to your computer, such as stealing your user names and passwords.
Here is a list of the best spyware removal programs available to keep your computer safe.
1. Spybot Search and Destroy: This is an excellent product and ranks with Ad-Adware as one of the best picks in terms of its ability to find and remove spyware from an infected system. Spybot Search and Destroy is available to users for free which, unfortunately, means that it comes with no tech support. The lack of tech support notwithstanding, it is a stable product that does its job well. This product is rated among the top 5.
2. Spyware Guard: This is also a free program that will perform real-time scans in order to catch and block spyware, browser hijackers and mal-ware from downloading while you are surfing using Internet Explorer. Spyware Guard will provide signature updates as part of its SG Live Update feature. This is a fairly small program that consumes a lot of space so it might not be worth installing onto your PC.
3. Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional: Made by Lavasoft, this is probably one of the best, if not the best, programs out there to get spyware and adware off of your computer. They offer a free, stripped down version for personal use. The premium version offers several more features and functions which are not available with the free version. The free version will do manual scans while the professional version will automatically protect the computer from everything, including spyware. If you’re looking for the product at the top of its class, this is your program.
4. McAfee Anti-Spyware: McAfee, best known for their anti-virus product, is one of the biggest names in the computer and security network industry. McAfee will effectively detect and remove hijackers, remote-control programs and other spyware that could possibly steal personal or sensitive information, such as passwords. It has a real-time monitor but does not perform as well as Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional.
5. Pest Patrol: If you have anti-virus and firewall software, Pest Patrol will complement these programs nicely. It also extends your protection against non-viral software that will hack other security software and privacy controls. It receives automatic updates to ensure that it is always detecting the latest computer threats.
If you’ve never had problems with spyware on your computer and think that, even if your machine is infected, nothing will happen, here are a couple of reasons why you might want to remove it anyway:
Spyware can attack your computer and make it impossible to get on your computer for days or, worse yet, freeze and destroy your hard drive and all of your files. You could lose precious information and documents forever as many spyware programs are designed to be lethal to your system and they are.
Various spyware programs were created to do different things, including but not limited to finding and using your personal information. If you are like most people, however, you don’t want your personal information used for any purpose, especially by hijackers that will steal your identity or use your information to change your bank account information and clean out your accounts.
While some spyware will do nothing to your computer, most of it can and will severely damage everything on your hard drive, taking your personal information in the process. Using some of the best spyware removal programs will help keep your computer safe and protected.