This month's article is one of the things I still find comes up as a frequent question, "what's the difference between Viruses and Spyware"? so I will try and answer that here. One of the biggest
slowdowns of a PC is caused by viruses, adware or spyware as it's often called.
Before you can benefit from any other optimisation tips or improvements you
really need a system relatively free from those pests. A virus is a piece of malicious software code
written to cause some kind of damage to a computer system or network or even
the Internet itself. Viruses spread, similar to their biological namesake, from
one machine to another and can spread havoc wherever they go. They are most
commonly spread by sharing files with others or through email attachments where
they can be set up to send themselves to all the addresses in your email
address book. Adware is usually dowloaded and installed
along with some other program without your knowledge and unlike a virus doesn't
spread by itself. Very often you click "OK" without reading the terms
and conditions and by doing so you agree to have the files installed. An
example is, you see a "free" program on offer that you think might be
useful and download it without thinking. Even some anti-spyware programs
install adware and the website earns money from the ads that are clicked
on. The catch is that the extra files introduced
are used to determine things like your surfing habits and the data is used to
serve up popup ads or redirect your browser to a page other than the one you
wanted. Some of the programs can be used to install keyloggers which can send
back information about passwords and bank details etc. Adware is not a security
problem it is more an annoyance especially when you have ten different programs
trying show ads. The amount of computer resources it uses up slows your system
to a crawl. Spyware is more malicious and evil intentioned
and is designed to steal something from you. It can be downloaded by visiting
the wrong types of websites or on the back of other files the same way as adware.
Spyware can often be hard to remove as it can continually recreate itself and
hide somewhere on your hard drive. Programs such as trojans can be downloaded without you knowing about it and then used by hackers to gain
access to your computer at a later date. The name comes from the story of the Trojan horse where the
Greeks hid inside the wooden horse left as a peace offering and were wheeled in
to the fort by the Trojans themselves. Then at night the Greeks crept out of
the horse and opened the gates to let the enemy in. Trojans and adware unlike
viruses don't spread themselves. It is wise to run more than one spyware
checker as no one system gets rid of them all. You can never be certain you
have every one removed because new ones may not have been discovered and the
Spyware program doesn't recognise it yet. I use the two free ones
"Spybot - Search and Destroy" and "Adaware 6.0" both easily found on google and I also use this one available at http://www.pcsandthings.com/c-spy.htm which comes from a reputable company that specialises in removing
spyware. Sometimes people say to me "doesn't my
anti-virus software remove spyware"? Well the answer is most don't and
even if it does I always find a specialist product works best. Beware also of
bogus spyware scanners available on-line which actually install their own
spyware once they have removed their competitors. Sometimes you run a free scan
and it finds all sorts of nasties but you will have to sign up and pay to
remove them. I have even seen it that they find things that don't exist or try
to frighten people into believing they have lots of spyware when all they have
are advertising cookies. Cookies are small text files that websites
leave on your system so that when you return they can customise the page that
loads or they can count you as a returning visitor. They are harmless and most
of them are useful. They can be easily removed by deleting them in your browser
settings. So you need to be running a suitable and up to
date antivirus program and one or more Spyware checkers. Make your computing experience a bit less stressful and help speed up your computer at http://www.pcsandthings.com
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