One question that you wouldn’t ever want to ask yourself someday is “ How to get rid of spyware ?” Why? Because spyware on your computer means hassle and trouble . Spyware is one of the tools that cyber hackers use to steal a person’s identity. They use it to gain access to a person’s personal information such as credit card information , passwords or bank account information. Now can you imagine how much problem a spyware infection on your computer can give you? I think so.

So what is a spyware? Spyware is defined by Wikipedia as s a type of malware that is installed surreptitiously on personal computers to collect information about users, their computer or browsing habits without their informed consent. Spyware is known to change computer settings which results in slow connection speed , different home pages and loss of internet functionality of other programs. Another bad thing is that it installs additional software in your computer and it redirects web browser activity.

There are actually many ways spyware can get to your system but the most common trick is when you install a freeware that you do want like a video or music file sharing application, the software is covertly installed, so be careful when you install freewares, make sure that you read the disclosures, privacy statement and the license agreement because that is how they get you.

You know that your computer may have been infected with a spyware if you are being bombarded by pop up ads. For example, you get a pop up ad every several minutes or when you open a new browser. You’re computer is most likely positive with a spyware if you see these pop ups even while you are not using the internet. Just the thought of it annoys me.

Another symptom that your computer has a spyware is when it runs extremely slow even while performing your normal routine tasks or light programs such as ms word, excel and etc (shall I say calculator?), I know you get my point. One more sign is when you switch on your computer and the home page’s settings have been changed and even if you adjust the settings, they still revert back every time you restart your pc. Now this is getting ridiculous!

Okay Experimenter, enough of the introduction, I know all that. Tell me how to get rid of spyware infection ! There are 2 primary ways to get rid of this annoying program on your PC. Most basic and free way to remove spyware for free is to go to control panel, click on Add/Remove Programs and check the programs on the system and remove the ones that you do not recognize.

This works about 70-80 percent of the time but it depends on the kind of spyware that hit your computer. There are sophisticated and dangerous spywares that will just laugh at this process, in this case, you will need to go to the second primary way to get rid of the spyware which we will discuss on the next paragraph.

The 2nd way to remove spyware will be a bit costly as it is buying an anti-spyware software. Once you've bought an anti spyware software, you need to download and install it in your computer. It will scan your computer and if it finds a software it recognizes from a database of spyware programs listed, it will destroy it and your spyware is removed, problem solved. Your life is back to normal. You need to be careful on choosing which anti-spyware software to buy because there are lots of them available in the market that don’t work so it will be just a waste of money.