Protecting Against Spyware

Another growing nuisance is the proliferation of spyware programs. These are programs that install themselves on your computer and then surreptitiously send information about the way you use your PC to some interested third party. Spyware typically gets installed in the background when you're installing another program.

A spyware infection often looks and feels just like a virus infection. Your computer might start to act and feel sluggish, or Internet Explorer might start behaving strangely (replacing your home page with another page, not being able to access search engines or other sites, and so on), or you might get deluged with a bevy of unwanted and unexpected pop-up windows. These are all signs that a spyware program is installed and running on your machine totally without your knowledge.

Most users are surprised to discover that antivirus software doesn't track or block spyware. In most users' minds, spyware and viruses are pretty much the same thing (they're both equally annoying, that's for sure), but in technical reality they're quite different. This is why you need different tools to fight the two different menaces.

TIP

Other popular (and free) anti-spyware programs are Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) and Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org).

Just as Windows XP doesn't include an antivirus utility, it also offers no help for the spyware problem. Fortunately, there are lots of third-party anti-spyware programs available, most of them downloadable for free.

My absolute favorite anti-spyware program just happens to come from Microsoft. Microsoft AntiSpyware (shown in Figure 11.3) offers robust anti-spyware protection; it scans your system and updates itself nightly, and runs in the background to prevent spyware infection. Even better, you can download it for free, at www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/.

Figure 11.3. Using Microsoft AntiSpyware (not part of Windows, unfortunately) to protect your system against spyware.