More Than Cartoons

I keep forgetting to share this one with everyone. While doing my cartoon viewing last week, I came across something on one of my cartoon sites that is actually useful. They posted about yet another spyware/adware removal program. I was straight in line with everything the guy wrote about.

I have been using adaware and spybot s&d to protect my comp from spyware. The combination of the two has been really good at keeping my comp clean. Spybot is completely free, while adaware has a free version (which is all I use) and a pay "premium" version. The new anti-spyware program that they mention is a beta version of one made by microsoft.

I downloaded, installed, and ran it and it found a few spyware programs that the other two had missed. The software also has a program to restore IE if the program gets hijacked. (A hijacking of IE is my reason why I started using a third party browser, even though I did fix IE.)

The microsoft program is free, but only works for windows xp, windows 2000, or microsoft server 2003.

If any of you don't know what spyware is, it is hidden programming that is embedded in some web pages and other programs. These programs collect information on you, so that they can target ads (a lot of pop ups) specifically at you. The programs can become so abundant that they will bog your system down and cause all your programs to run slow. They can potentially get so bad that your computer will crash and become useless.

That is why I now have 3 anti-spyware programs. Just have to update and scan the comp every once in a while (I do mine once a month) to keep them away. Its just a little maintanance to save a lot of headaches.

(article I read about microsofts anti spyware program and link to download)

(download page for spybot s&d)

(download page for adaware)