So you have a computer connected to the internet, that means no matter how careful you are, if you dont take certain precautions, sooner or later you are going to have spyware/malware/adware on your computer.

This can slow up your computer resulting in freezing, crashing general unwanted behaviour and wasted resources,as well as potential privacy and security issues, so lets fix it!

This article assumes that you already have an infestation that you wish to get rid of,( and if you have never taken precautions against it before, chances are you DO have it!) obviously prevention is better than cure, i will go into that in another article.

The first thing to do is to get a reliable, trustworthy scanner. You have to be careful with this step, as there is a lot of rogue antispyware scanners out there which are basically spyware/adware themselves just pretending to be antispyware scanners.Truely wolves in sheeps clothing!

I'm about to recommend only the best, most trustworthy scanners which i have used for a long time and which have a proven track record and great reputation among many, many users.

One of the first things to do is to download AdAware from lavasoft. Its available in both free and paid versions, the main difference being that the paid version has a spyware guard that runs constantly, but we'll use the free version.

Simply download, install and make sure to update the database so that its current against all the latest known threats. Then run a "full scan" of your computer, this may take a while,depending on the size of your hard drive, so you can go away from your computer for a little while. Upon your return make sure to click the "critical" tab and select anything it has found for deletion. Easy enough right?

The thing with scanners is, sometimes they will not detect all the same stuff, so its worth running more than one scanner. You should download another well known scanner called Spybot Search and Destroy. Its totally free and has regular database updates. Again, follow the installation instructions which include updating to the database so that its current and up to date with the latest threats.

Both these scanners will most likely clean up most common spyware/adware/malware problems. But if you would like to be even more sure, there is some other good free scanners you can use. I recommend A-Squared, which has a free version available here

After running these three scanners (one at a time of course) chances are you will have cleaned up your spyware/adware/malware problem, resulting in a faster computer that won't crash or hang randomly! If the problems persist, try starting your computer in safe mode, by hitting F8 during the restart, then run the scanners again.

You'll have now solved your spyware problems quickly and for free, beats paying a computer maintenance person who would do basically the same things I just told you how to do for free!

The real secret is making sure spyware never gets the chance to install itself on your computer in the first place, more on that in another of my hubpages!

Check out my other hubpages for more useful tips on keeping your computer running safely and smoothly! Thanks for reading and I hope i helped! Feedback or ratings are appreciated if i helped you out!