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!