How do I clear my PC from Spyware and other background programs?

Question

How do I clear my PC from Spyware and other background programs?

Answer 1

Computer virus VS spyware are almost the same and can cause just as much damage to the PC. Both these topics are extremely dangerous to people that surf the Internet and websites that are infected.  I will give you an example of all these topics.

Spyware is software that gets installed on your PC by you downloading something from the Internet or going to a Website that is infected.  The main purpose of Spyware is to install the program and to keep a track of your usage on what you are doing.  One of the main things that company’s use Spyware is to gather information of the person and what website they are going to, so that they can send you spam mails and pop-ups.

Now adware is completely different form and it is usually free that you download from websites.  Now adware also contains advertising programs in them.  Now the difference with adware is that you download and install the program and you don’t know what else it is installing and Spyware usually installs itself with out you even knowing that it did.

So when you turn your computer on and it takes a while to load then with out you doing anything you notice that you are getting pop ups of advertising and certain websites open, then you can say that in most cases that your PC is infected with Spyware.

Answer 2

If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run a scan with it in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking.  Both often prevent malware from protecting itself.  If you don’t have one, many people here swear by AVG (it’s free).

I suggest you also download Ad-Aware 2008 and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above (or any anti-malware, for that matter) doesn’t seem to be able to run properly or get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again in Safe Mode.

Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.  

To get into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking:

1. Log out and reboot your machine.

2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.

3. Select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu.

4. When the login screen comes up, log in as Administrator.  By default, Administrator has no password.

5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different.  You won't be able to see the Internet, for instance.

6. When you're finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.

Note that even if the anti-malware programs get rid of the malware, they may not be able to reverse the effects.  Search the Web for possible fixes.

Update and run everything regularly, not just when you think you already have malware.

Good luck.