Protecting Your Windows Environment from Adware and Spyware


There are thousands of adware/spyware programs that attempt to install themselves on a Windows computer while you use that computer on the Internet. After they are installed, these applications can do many different things, from sending data about the activities for which you use your computer back to the Internet to providing your sensitive personal data to organizations that are unknown to you. You should install anti-spyware/adware software in your Windows environment to protect it from spyware/adware threats.

Note

Some antivirus applications, such as Norton AntiVirus, also protect your system from spyware/adware. Even if you have one that does, it isn't a bad idea to install a free application also. Each application catches a different set of spyware/adware programs, so it doesn't hurt to have and use multiple programs to keep your Windows environment spyware/adware free.


There are many kinds of anti-spyware/adware software available to you. Some of these are free, whereas some require a license fee. Covering the available applications is beyond the scope of this chapter, but you will see an example of the available free applications that will provide you with a reasonable level of protection from spyware/adware.

Note

Microsoft provides the free Windows Defender application that will attempt to protect your system from spyware. To download it, go to www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx (or just go to www.microsoft.com and search for "Defender").


Another free spyware application is Spybot-S&D available at www.safer-networking.org. Go to this website and use the links to download and install Spybot. These steps will be similar to other applications that you download and install. After you've installed the application, launch it. Use its home page to check your system for spyware and to configure the program's options (see Figure 4.7). If it detects spyware/adware, you'll be prompted to allow the application to remove the problems that are found.

Figure 4.7. Spybot is a good example of anti-spyware/adware applications available on the Internet (no problems had been found on this machine to this point in the scan).


Note

You can download and use Spybot for free. However, if you use it regularly, you use the donation tools available on its website and on the application's home page to donate to support it.


If the applications you use allow for automatic checks, you should enable them. You should also run checks manually in case you miss an automatic check or if the applications you use don't provide automatic checks.

Tip

Just because an anti-spyware/adware application identifies a problem, that doesn't mean the problem is definitely spyware/adware. You should take a close look at problems before allowing the application to correct to make sure the issue isn't actually from an application you intended to install. Most of the time, if you don't recognize the source of a problem, you should allow it to be fixed.





Sleeping with the Enemy(c) Running Windows(r) on a Mac(r)
Sleeping with the Enemy(c) Running Windows(r) on a Mac(r)
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2007
Pages: 58

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