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Learn how to track and find spyware - Your best defense!
It's my personal opinion, but I would switch to a browser that does not allow ActiveX, like Firefox. It is free, fast, and you can have both it and
Internet Explorer on your computer. The reason I say this is because of ActiveX. ActiveX are programs that run in your browser when using
Internet Explorer. Now I like Internet Explorer, but I have found that Firefox is just as good, and actually has a few features that I like better.
Firefox rarely allows spyware to install just from visiting a webpage, although this seemed to be a much bigger problem a few years ago. Internet
Explorer has gotten better at helping prevent this from occurring. Through IE, I have received spyware numerous times over the years, and I have
spent alot of time experimenting with this and letting spyware install on my pc intentionally. I always go back and remove all the spyware, but
many of you may not be familiar enough to find and do this. Of course you need to clean up your existing spyware or adware first, but switching
to a browser that does not allow ActiveX is a good start at preventing future problems. Techniques listed below are a must for removing spyware
from your pc in the future, and will help you learn alot about how these things operate, or how adware and spyware arrives on your computer.
Some spyware and adware becomes a hidden "add on" when you install free software. Remember that free software (called freeware, freeware is different
from shareware, as shareware usually costs money) is usually free for a reason. Most companies will not spend all their time supporting and writing
something to give away free, unless they have a way to get some money in return (can't blame them, it makes business sense), so they get paid to embed
hidden programs in with your free programs. These programs (called spyware or adware) track you, display ads to you, create pop up windows, or use
your machine resources, among other things.
Become famaliar with your system startup. System startup is the list of programs that run everytime your computer is rebooted. It is more complex then
just a simple list, as many system related things startup in the background also, but if you click "start" then "run", then type "msconfig" in the box
and click ok to run it, you will see a window open. Click the startup tab on that window and it will show a list of programs that are running. These
run automatically whenever you reboot your system. This is a good thing to monitor, as if you get spyware, adware, or viruses, often they will
suddenly appear in this list. That's because if the programs have no way to automatically start after you shutdown, then they become useless once
you reboot. If they are in this list, they will run instantly (and therefore continue running) when you reboot your computer. You may see normal programs
here like AIM instant messenger, Yahoo messenger, hardware related programs, and other programs like this that automatically appear in your system tray when you boot up. That
is how the programs automatically run and show in your system tray. As I mentioned it is more complex then this, as there are services and BHO's that
can run separately from this list, but this is a good start becoming familiar with this. You can also uncheck and make it so the programs do not run
when your reboot. If you are someone that makes alot of changes on your computer, or installs
and runs alot of software programs, then I suggest using a program like
Disk and Registry Alert which will show you everything that is installed on your
computer. Basically you scan your system immediately before installing software, then immediately after, and it shows you all the differences on
your hard drive and registry both. It's not necessarily a cleanup program, but is a must for those who install any software on their system.
It will give you ease of mind, and it show you exactly which programs were put on your pc, and where they are located. It also works good to make sure
program uninstalls have really removed everything that was installed, and helps keep your system clean.
Become familiar with your task list and task manager. When you press CTRL-ALT-DELETE your task list appears, this is the tab named
"Processes". It shows everything currently running in the background on your computer. For example, if you open Internet Explorer, you will
see a process appear in your list named "iexplore.exe". Close Internet Explorer and this task will disappear. Although the list may be fairly
large, it is good to become familiar with this and at least look at it at times. You can also check your performance under the performance tab.
If your cpu usage or memory suddenly is maxed out, then thats not a good sign as something may be now running in the background that is causing
this. If you want to lookup what the task names are to see if they are spyware or virus related, look them up on this
task list page.
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