Moving forward with my happy little campaign on cleaning up your machine (and keeping it clean) I will talk (and talk, and talk) about spyware. You have (ahem...no doubt) read my previous entry on what spyware is, so I will skip the intro and get to it.

Follow up:

As with other "keeping it clean" software, multiple spyware detecting programs running all the time do not play nice with each other. I recommend keeping real time scanning for spyware to a minimum (or not at all) but doing a manual scan with at least 2 different spyware programs each week. In this case, more is better, as long as they are not running all the time and as long as you take the necessary time to run them. No single spyware program is going to find everything, contrary to what you might read. It is for this reason I say more is better. The more separate scans you can fit into your schedule, the cleaner your machine will be.

Note: You should run spyware scans with your browser closed for the best results. There are some threats that cannot be detected with your browser open. Certainly, this does not mean you can't surf the net or do anything else while you scan, just that your results will be the best possible if you can do it while your internet browser is not open.

Make it a part of your routine to take time to run them at least once a week (or more if necessary). Some of them scan faster than others, and you may find things run a little slow if you minimize to the task bar and continue doing other tasks. However, it is a necessary part of keeping your system clean. Spyware can cause many problems, sometimes even affecting the way programs function. If you suddenly find something seems a little odd on your system (like messenger programs opening and shutting down again immediately), and you've done a lot of surfing on the net lately, or it's been awhile since you bothered to run a scan for spyware, I'd suggest doing it. I spend quite a bit of time on the net, and in rare instances I run them twice a week, but in general, once a week is sufficient. I typically set aside one evening a week for cleanup, but as everyone's schedules are different, you might find it easier to start a scan running before you head off to bed, and deal with the results in the morning. The scanning part is the longest, cleaning them off generally takes only a few moments (and perhaps a reboot of your system when indicated.)

Remember, new threats are being unleashed every day, so it is imperative you update your definitions each and every time you run any spyware software. Do not assume your definitions are up to date! (Uh, you know what assume stands for right? I don't really have to fill you in on that one do I?) Take the 30 seconds to do an update and download the latest definitions for the best results. If (for some unknown reason) you insist on using Norton please, please remember that the trial version you may have on your machine is just that, a trial. Unless you shell out the money - you won't be kept up to date. Having out of date spyware (or anti-virus) software on your machine is like having none at all. But here's the good news! There are quite a few really great FREE options I highly recommend. (And with these paragraphs out of the way, I won't belabor the point in each of the articles to follow - I'm going to believe you've read up to this point and committed every little bit of it to memory.)

Hands down, I believe everyone should have Ad-Aware (the free personal version) on their machine. It's easy to install and easy to run. Set it up to check for new spyware definitions every time you run the program so you'll always be up to date. It will prompt you when you start the program and ask if you wish to update - which of course, you should. Then run a complete system scan. Ad-Aware takes a long time to run, but it's worth it. It consistently finds spyware on most machines. If you find yourself in a bit of a time crunch, but knowing you need to scan - you can do the Smart Scan, but make sure at least once a month (absolute minimum) you run the full scan. While a lot of programs go after a number of different kinds of threats, I find Ad-Aware is the best at getting the "run of the mill" spyware off your machine.

In a nutshell, once it completes, you can see how many objects it found. Don't forget to put a tic in the box next to each type of problem and then click "remove." Once you're done, it will show 0 objects found, and you can then close the software. There is a small glitch in the most recent version where you may get an "warning" alert (um - don't remember exact wording there but it's a big yellow exclamation point thingy) telling you there was a problem, and your count does not drop to 0. After much frustration and research, I was able to find this is really supposed to be an informational message to say you need to reboot your machine to finish cleaning off the threat. (Sometimes some part of the little nasty is in use when your machine is running and/or your browser is open and a reboot is required to finish eradicating it.) But Ad-Aware really has finished cleaning off the other items. I tested it and true to form, the second (rather lengthy) scan found no items at all.

If you'd like more complete instructions on installing and using Ad-Aware, please see this very nice tutorial on Bleeping Computer. Although the screen shots show the 2007 version there are not many differences in the 2008 version and you?ll be able to muddle through it just fine. (I do so love it when someone else has done the hard work of screen shots and technical documentation...)

I'll go into some of the other spyware programs I find useful in my next posts. I'll look at a few that do a bit more than just find and remove general spyware, ones a tad more multi-purpose. But if you want to get started on the road to a clean machine, install Ad-Aware and give it a whirl (or a scan) and see just how much it finds. (By the way - don't be alarmed if you find even hundreds of items - I routinely find anywhere from 30-200 on my laptop each week, depending on what I've been searching for and how many hours I was engrossed in the internet. I've seen machines that had only a handful after months of neglect, and ones with countless numbers after just a few unattended weeks.) Bottom line is to get into the routine, and get the junk off your machine.