If you have ever had spyware on your computer, you know how important it is to get rid of it. There are several ways to get spyware out of your computer. Here are some basic suggestions for removing spyware from your computer:
A basic way of removing spyware from your computer is to access your control panel and remove any programs you know should not be there or that you don’t recognize as having installed. Unfortunately this will only get rid of obvious spyware programs; most of the really destructive, insidious ones will hide in various places within your computer and continually cause problems.
Anti-spyware software is an effective way to get, and keep, spyware off your computer. In fact, if you have a computer you should have, at the minimum, a basic anti-spyware program on it. Anti-spyware can, and should, be run and updated daily. Most anti-spyware will run automatically so you won’t have to remember to run it every day. While you can choose to download free versions of anti-spyware software, the ones that will do the best job are usually the ones that you either buy outright or buy an annual subscription for.
You can also choose to remove spyware manually as some spyware cannot be removed with software. There are several web sites that provide step by step instructions for removing a specific type of spyware. Keep in mind that removing spyware from your computer manually requires extensive computer knowledge so if you’re not well-versed on the inner workings of a computer, you are better off contacting a computer technician.
Hijack This is a free anti-spyware program that is a little more complicated that the standard anti-spyware software and is, therefore, better for advanced computer users. Hijack This was made to find specific areas of your computer that might be vulnerable to spyware and once those areas are found, the program is able to determine what is spyware and what is not. You might have to reinstall all of your software though so don’t use this program unless you have a particularly stubborn form of spyware on your computer as you risk losing or damaging your operating system.
If it seems like you have tried everything and the spyware just keeps coming back you may have to take your computer to a computer tech to have them remove it for you.
Just as every computer user is different, most computer users will go about removing spyware differently. These are just some helpful suggestions that might work for you; finding the best one for your computer will depend on what you are most comfortable doing with your machine, how computer literate you are and, in some cases, how much time and money you want to spend fixing the problem. Of course, in order to protect your computer from the word go, so to speak, you should install a firewall as well as a good dual purpose software that has both anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. If you can stop the problem before it starts, so much the better.