Free Spyware Software - Scanners & Cleaners
Micro-X Online Spyware Scanner & Cleaner. You must be connected to the Internet during the entire scan in order for it to work properly. This does not protect your computer from spyware attacks, it just scans and cleans existing spyware.
Ad-Aware 2008 From Lavasoft:
With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2008 can clean your system easily, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.
Spybot Search & Destroy From Patrick M. Kolla:
Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system. For advanced users, it allows you to fix Registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents.
Microsoft Windows Defender
Windows Defender is software that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software by detecting and removing known spyware from your computer. Windows Defender features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, minimizes interruptions, and helps you stay productive.
Spyware Information
FACT: Chances are your machine is hosting spyware. There are currently over 78,000 Spyware and Adware programs on the Internet that can infect your PC.
Here are 9 warning signs you should be aware of, if any of them pertain to you then your PC is most likely infected:
When you start your browser, the home page has mysteriously changed. You change it back manually, but before long you find that it has changed back again.
You get pop-up advertisements when your browser is not running or when your system is not even connected to the Internet, or you get pop-up ads that address you by name.
Your phone bill includes expensive calls to 900 numbers that you never made-probably at an outrageous per-minute rate.
You enter a search term in Internet Explorer's address bar and press Enter to start the search. Instead of your usual search site, an unfamiliar site handles the search.
A new item appears in your Favorites list without your putting it there. No matter how many times you delete it, the item always reappears later.
Your system runs noticeably slower than it did before. If you're a Windows 2000/XP user, launching the Task Manager and clicking the Processes tab reveals that an unfamiliar process is using nearly 100 percent of available CPU cycles.
At a time when you're not doing anything online, the send or receive lights on your dial-up or broadband modem blink just as wildly as when you're downloading a file or surfing the Web. Or the network/modem icon in your system tray flashes rapidly even when you're not using the connection.
A search toolbar or other browser toolbar appears even though you didn't request or install it. Your attempts to remove it fail, or it comes back after removal.
And the final sign is: Everything appears to be normal. The most devious spyware doesn't leave traces you'd notice, so scan your system anyway.
Disclosure:
Please be aware that Comteck of Indiana does not endorse or make any claims as to the reliability to the above mentioned products nor does Comteck provide any type of support for them. This information is being provided to you for your own convenience. It is the responsibility of the user to be informed about the software they install to their machines.
