The best of the best in the computer application world are the applications that do real time scanning. What this means in simple English is that when a connection is being made between your computer and another over the internet, a certain program scans it, recognizes it and deems it acceptable or unacceptable. It makes its decision on the connection according to that company’s database of acceptable and unacceptable connections.

A lot of antivirus applications operate this way. They run in the background, often only displaying a small icon in your system try, beside your clock. The next generations of antivirus applications are coming bundled with spyware protection.

A lot of developers are coming to their senses about the current issue on spyware. It is becoming as big a problem as viruses these days. Many people actually consider spyware a virus. I personally consider it a wimpier, sadder attempt at making a virus.

When choosing the best spyware protection, go with a company name you know, or have been referred to by a friend or family member. Most of the time if they are telling you about it, and if it is positive, you should check it out. These are the kinds of situations that don’t need to involve “learning by mistakes” these mistakes can usually be costly and they really don’t need to happen if you take the proper measures to research beforehand.

The cream of the crop will offer you many features to help keep your computer running at optimal performance. Again, look for an application that offers real time virus scanning and protection, along with real time spyware protection. The best protection you can get is real time.

If you are running a scan, and you find something, that means you have already been infected, and you need to now fix the problem. If you have a real time scanner running, you can stop the spyware from even infecting your computer to begin with. You stop it dead in its tracks and it doesn’t even touch your PC.

To conclude, look for the best bang for your buck, then research the application and company. Read customer reviews, check CNET for reviews and ratings. I almost always go to read their reviews and read comments of people who have downloaded that application.

If you do a simple Google search for spyware remover you will notice that there are hundreds… even thousands of different choices to choose from. Well you are reading this because you want some insight into the best spyware remover. I have done a lot of research for myself, and so should everyone else.

There are many different routes you can take when deciding on which program you want and if it comes with what you are looking for in a spyware remover. Some applications are free, which usually means they come with the basic features and offer a quick fix solution. You can then opt to pay for a spyware remover.

If you are going to go this route, please research the company and application before you purchase. Just Google the name of the application and look for product reviews on websites. This will give you a better understanding of the application and the conditions it should be used under. Some spyware removers that you pay for are meant for a corporate setting, and some are meant for a home setting.

Then do some research on the company. You should do a Whois search on the domain, see how long it has been registered, if it was registered within a year, I would continue to do some research, and find out if they are a reputable company. If the domain has been registered for a couple years, and if they have a few professional reviews, it should be safe to buy their software.

This would be easy if we lived in a perfect world, but unfortunately we don’t. There are some bad apples pretending to be good ones. Here is a list that identifies the bad companies/programs that identify themselves as being legitimate but in reality are the complete opposite.

Known scams/spyware:

• errorsafe (AKA system doctor)
• Pest Trap
• SpyAxe
• AntiVirus Gold
• SpywareStrike
• Spyware Quake
• WorldAntiSpy
• Spylocked
• SpyShedder
• SysProtect
• Spy Sheriff
• Spy Wiper
• PAL Spyware Remover
• PSGuard
• Malware
• WinAntiVirus Pro 2006
• WinFixer
• Spydawn
• ContraVirus
• UltimateCleaner
• MagicAntiSpy
• AV System Care
• Registrycleanerxp.com

Keep a sharp eye out for these names. Copy and Paste them into a text file, and keep it on your desktop, if you come across some spyware remover applications, make sure it isn’t on that list.

Please study this list and run your spyware remover weekly.

Most people have no clue how to spot spyware, or recognize the symptoms. I will go over some symptoms that you might have on your computer when you are infected.

1. Biggest symptom is by far pop up advertisements. You’re trying to finish up your essay or you’re writing the last bit of your business proposal and all of the sudden… Party Poker pops up. Who opened this you might think. Your worst nightmare did, and it’ll do that 200 more times in the next few hours.

2. Slooooww computer. If you notice your computer booting up rather sluggishly, then you probably have some sort of spyware. It could also be you just have a lot of applications starting up at the initial boot up, but it will most likely be the fact that you have spyware. If you are me, it is anti spyware applications loading up.

3. Mysterious Search Bar. You open up Internet Explorer to check your email and you notice a rather ugly search bar sitting below your address bar. Who put that there? You did unknowingly. Quick Tip: Most of the time a quick fix is to just hide the search bar. Do this by right clicking on the grey space above the address bar, if the name of the bar is there, click it and it should disappear. This doesn’t uninstall the bar. To do that you need to go to Control Panel > Install/Remove Programs > (Look for search bar name and uninstall). If that doesn’t work, use Ad-Aware or Spybot Search and Destroy!

Hopefully by looking for these early signs of spyware you can join in on the anti spyware revolution and you can join in on having a fast, clean PC, free of any spyware.

Even though it is usually the last step in my virtual routine, it is by far the most important. Well, maybe after checking my email. No matter where it is in my routine, it is still important.

I usually let people know about my routine, and the usual response to my spyware removal habits are “you have too much time on your hands” or “I don’t even know how to do that”. These responses really surprise me because it is so easy to remove spyware. On another note, it does not take long and can run in the background of your computer.

This habit and integration into my routine has secured my computer a long, healthy, “fast” life so to speak. It is an extra step that most people overlook or don’t even consider. I know most homes in Canada or USA don’t even have any programs that remove spyware, which is sad. This is why I’m raising awareness.

A good way to start is to run your anti-spyware applications on a certain day. Pick any day during the week. Let’s choose Monday for example. Most people don’t like Monday, so this makes this a good example. So imagine it’s Monday and you just came home from work, you are tired, the boss wants the TPS report finished by tomorrow morning and you haven’t started and you wish you could just be happy. Well Remove Spyware! Doing this somehow makes people happy. Run Ad-Aware, kill all that stupid spyware, remove it, and delete it! Then run Spybot S&D, zap and kill the rest of the stranglers that Ad-Aware missed. Now that you have a faster, better running PC, you can feel rest assured you will have that report finished on time, without ad popping up.

I hope this article motivates you to integrate spyware removal into your weekly routine. It will ensure your computer runs at optimum performance for a long time.

There are tons of free spyware removal tools; a couple that come to mind immediately are Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. This program comes in a lot of different languages, and comes in either a paid version or free version. Recently they have released a 2007 version with a highly updated search engine and a new design. This is one of the best spyware applications out there. Lavasoft releases an update to their search definitions almost daily it seems. Every time I open up the application, they have an update to download.

Next on my imaginary list, is Spybot S&D. Spyboy Search & Destroy is also one of the pioneers of the industry. They are proud to be a completely free application, and they also release updates to their search definitions. They don’t release them as often as Ad-Aware, but this is definitely something you should add to your Spyware Removal arsenal.

To be honest, I have only had a problem with spyware once, and because I am kind of a perfectionist, I like to have my computer perfectly clean, and running top speed and all that good stuff all the time. What I did, was I backed up all of my important docs and images into a portable hard drive I had handy, and I reformatted my PC.

Why would I do something so drastic you ask?

It is a fail proof solution to spyware removal. Some people only go this route. This way, I was guaranteed that my computer will not have the spyware once I reboot it. It gives me the peace of mind that I need to have while I am using my computer, I don’t know what I would do if advertisements started to pop up.

Now I know most average PC users aren’t going to do this, this only applies to most power users. An everyday user should only rely on about two to three spyware removal applications. The two I suggested should be enough for any regular user to cope with.

I hope this helps you with your spyware removal adventures!

Spyware can also be in the form of information collecting. This means that when the spyware is planted into your computer, it collects information about your surfing habits, the programs you use, even what you type. It can be scary thinking that something could be in your computer, recording all of this and sending it to someone you don’t even know.

Companies that make spyware usually don’t care about anyone else other than themselves. They use the spyware to exploit advertising networks. There are many advertising networks that pay people to show their ads, a spyware engineer could make a certain spyware to show that networks ads, generating quite a lot of money.

On the other side, the anti-spyware companies sometimes do surveys to see how the market is doing. One highly recognized company finished their survey with some astounding numbers, out of every 10 personal computers, 9 were infected with spyware.

Most spyware tends to be installed without the user’s knowledge. “Joe” user could be thinking he is going to download the latest version of Kazaa and little does he know it is piggybacked with a highly infectious spyware. Most software will present a very useful purpose, to “Accelerate your internet speed” or to “increase download speed” but in reality, all they do is pretend to change settings, and then infect you with spyware.

Generally speaking, spyware will cause your computer to slow down quite a bit. It does this because there is an extra process running in the background, the spyware. The reason they take up so much system resources is because they are usually poorly programmed and aren’t efficient, they are hastily made and hog your PC of performance!