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By George RoseInformation Systems

The most common thing I hear regarding users home computers is ‘My computer is slow and I am getting a ton of pop-ups, I can’t even get to my home page on the Internet! I think my computer is infected with spyware! How do I get rid of it? I have written a couple of articles on how to avoid getting infected with spyware but not so much on what to do once you are infected.

There are a few good spyware removal tools available for free download on the internet.

Spybot Search & Destroy

It was one of the first and is still among the best antispyware tools. Aside from scanning for and removing thousands of known spyware applications, it also has utilities for locking down the system against future attacks. Beginners can clean their system with the push of one button, and expert users can pull detailed information about what may still be hiding and use that to do further cleansing.

It can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/

Lavasoft's AdAware

The free personal edition is widely regarded as the "other" best antispyware tool. It doesn't have as many of the utilities that Spybot Search & Destroy does, but it generally cleans a broader range of problems and its scanning engine gets updated more frequently.

It can be found at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

HiJachThis

This finds all programs and files that are starting up and/or hooking into existing files. It's very useful for finding malware and spyware which otherwise go undetected. This program however is for a more advanced user as you have to decide what to remove. It simply scans your computer and lists all, even good, files and setting that are in the vulnerable area’s. It is completely up to the user to decide what is needed and what needs to be removed.

It can be found at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Before Running Removal Programs

Start by using Add/Remove Programs to uninstall unwanted programs. Go through the list and anything you are not sure of do a Google search to see if it comes up as spyware. You have to be careful here not to remove anything you might want.

Next you would run the programs, generally in the order listed above. If everything seems fine after running SpyBot and AdAware then you would not need to use HijackThis.

In an upcoming issues I will give more detailed instructions on installing and running the three programs.