The more often you find yourself using a computer, the more susceptible your computer will be to adware and other similar problems. Even a secure computer and a more secure browser cannot completely protect you from adware popping up on your computer over time.

What many people are unaware of, however, is the fact that removing adware is a simple process that can be completed in the comfort of your own home. In other words, there is absolutely no logical reason for you to take your computer in to a repair shop when you can do the work yourself with only a small amount of know how.

Technicians charge ridiculous fees to remove adware and spyware.

The truth is, they are simply running a scan using a piece of software. The adware removal is completed automatically and the technician does not need to do anything. Yet they are charging exorbitant fees for something that you can be doing at home with no assistance.

Why pay $169 to $299 for removing adware at Geeksquad when you can download the necessary tools yourself?  The same tools that the technicians are using are available to you!

There are numerous popular tools for adware and spyware removal, including Adaware, NoAdWare and NetCom3 just to name a few. These same utilities can be acquired by the public, meaning that they are available to you.

AdAware has a free version, for example, which runs very well and is extremely user friendly, meaning you can do just as good a job of removing adware and spyware as the professionals without all of the cost! A free version of Adaware can be obtained at www.lavasoft.com.

Some professionals may recommend reinstalling your operating system without ever looking at your machine.  Some technicians may decide that less troubleshooting work is necessary if you simply reinstall your operating system. Unfortunately, this means losing all of your files and data just for a little less effort. Removing adware and spyware using one of the aforementioned utilities may take a little more time and effort, but it leaves your files intact.

Real time scanners can prevent adware and spyware from appearing on your computer.  Removing adware and spyware is helpful, but you can prevent it from ever occurring as well. Using a real time scanning utility like NoAdware or Netcom3 will allow you to prevent adware from ever finding its way into your system, which is the most advantageous way to keep adware from clogging your computer up or putting it at risk for viruses and other spyware.

You can obtain Netcom3 at Netcom3.com and NoAdware can be obtained at NoAdware.net.

Removing adware, spyware and other malware from your computer is not impossible. With a little bit of know how and the right utility, you can accomplish just as much as the overpriced technicians in your local computer repair shop. Removing adware from your computer as it occurs is vital, because it keeps junk off your computer and allows your computer to run in good shape.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Posted in Removing Adware | No Comments »

When you are learning how to maneuver around on the internet for the first time, learning about threats to your computer like spyware and adware can be a scary “wake up call”.

There are a lot of not-so-great things that you may encounter on the internet, but this does not mean that you have to be susceptible to them.  Not only can you keep your computer running in good shape, but you can also easily reduce your chances of obtaining infections for serious spyware and adware simply by following three basic steps.

Review Add / Remove Programs Often

Spyware and adware often installs itself onto your computer, and can be easily located in your Add/Remove programs utility, which is part of your control panel. If you want to find and get rid of adware and spyware on your computer, then learning how to review programs in this utility, removing the ones that do not belong in the process, is absolutely vital. This is a good way to get rid of adware and spyware software that downloaded itself onto your computer automatically without you realizing it, eliminating a lot of the threat associated with even bigger infestations and infections.

Uninstall Unused Toolbars

Everyone offers a Toolbar these days. Some are extremely useful, while others simply get in the way. Some are a lot of fun and offer unique links and utilities while others are riddled with adware and spyware threats and risks. If you are not using certain toolbars but have them installed, go a step further than simply disabling them by uninstalling them instead. This will remove the chance of them downloading adware and spyware onto your computer and will allow you to get rid of adware associated risks on your computer.

Clear your Browser Cache and Cookies Often

Your browser cache and cookies are both set up by default to store information about your website visits and history. This information can be used against you by adware and spyware utilities. In order to get rid of adware and spyware you should regularly go through these sections of your website history and clear them out whenever you can. Clearing cookies out can be a little annoying, but it is a necessary evil if you want to get rid of adware.

Finally, if you want one of the best possible means to get rid of adware and spyware at your disposal, then you need to consider an automated adware and spyware removal tool such as Netcom3 or NoAdware. These automated tools make it easier than ever to get rid of adware on your computer, keeping it running in tip top shape which is how your computer should be running in the first place.

Technorati Tags: ,

Posted in Get Rid of Adware | No Comments »

Everyone who owns a computer needs to protect their investment with a good adware cleaner.  Before you get click happy and just download and install anything, there are some important things you need to know to make sure you are giving yourself the best protection.

Just follow these five tips for picking the right adware cleaner, and you will be implementing the best protection available.  This will save your hours of headaches with adware cleaners that aren’t up to the challenge.

You Get What You Pay For
The first thing most people do when they look for an adware cleaner is to look for something free.  Even though it is hard to resist, you may want to keep a few things in mind about free adware cleaners.  Many times a free adware cleaner is just a free trial and doesn’t offer all of the features that a good tool is providing you.

Sometimes you can get baited into installing a free adware cleaner that is actually adware itself!  You install it thinking that it is going to help you out, then it starts blasting you with ads.  This is a pretty common trick that is going around the internet right now.

To top it all off, most free adware cleaners don’t catch everything.  Many of these tools are developed by good people with good intentions, but many of them work off donations or no money, so their research into emerging threats is limited. 

It is pretty common to run one free adware cleaner and it will find and remove a few threats.  Then you run another free adware cleaner on top of it and it will find more threats that were missed by the first one.  I have even ran a third free adware cleaner on a machine once, and it picked up stuff missed by the previous two.

If you decide to only rely on free adware cleaners, you will be saving $30.00 or $40.00.  But you do run the risk of leaving yourself to vulnerable to malicious attacks.  Now let’s talk about the things you should look for in a good adware cleaner before you shell out any of your hard-earned money.

Real-time Monitor
The most important consideration for an adware cleaner is that it comes with a module that is always watching your computer for threats. A real-time monitor like this makes your adware protection hands and worry-free.  This feature is usually not found in a free adware cleaner and is typically disabled in free trials.

Real-time Updates
An adware cleaner is only good as its signature file.  This file is how the adware cleaner knows what is bad and to look out for it on your computer.  If you never update your signature file, then your adware cleaner won’t be keeping up with the times.  On the same token, the more often it updates, the better protection it will provide you.  A good adware cleaner will be looking for updates in real-time.

Scheduled Scanning
It is important to not only have real-time protection, but also have a way to scan your entire system for threats.  The last thing you want to do is tie a string around your finger to remind you to do an adware scan.  Look for an adware cleaner that will let you schedule the scan for a time that is convenient for you.  Like 3a.m. while you are fast asleep!

Thorough Scanning
Your adware cleaner should be thorough and comprehensive.  When you are evaluating a potential adware cleaner, verify with the developer that the tool will remove the following categories; adware, malware, toolbars, internal popup programs, XXX and other dialers, malicious cookies, and browser hijackers.

Most developers of adware cleaners will make this information available on their website, usually under a “features” section.  If you can’t find out or verify information, it is a good sign to move on to the next adware cleaner.

If you would like a suggestion on which adware cleaners to check out, then here are a few that we like:

Netcom3
NoAdware
AdwareBot
XoftSpy

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Posted in Adware Cleaner | No Comments »

The most important thing you can do to block adware is to never let it on to your computer.  The biggest thing people do to make themselves vulnerable to unwanted ads and system slowness is downloading and installing free software and free games. 

When I tell this to people, it never fails that someone will point out the fact that there is a lot of clean and safe software that you can get that is free.  For example, Mozilla Firefox,  Zone Alarm Firewall, and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

It is true that there are quite a few pieces of software that are totally harmless and totally free.  It is also true that you can find good software tools and block adware at the same time.  So how do you walk through the mine fields of dangerous software and find the good stuff?  They way you look for it and where you get it from will make a world of difference in your efforts to block adware. 

A common mistake people do is go to Google and type in the kind of software they are looking for, add “free” to it, and then hit submit.  Searching for software like this can lead you down very dangerous roads and give you all kinds of unintended consequences. 

Google can take you to wild places around the internet, and it is best to just avoid them altogether.  Just the other day, to test this theory for this article, I started searching for free software on the internet.  I ended up on some funky page on a software directory website that installed a bug called Win32/Agent.ODG trojan just by visiting their site. 

I didn’t even install anything!

You can save yourself endless of hours trying to block adware from your PC just by looking for free software tools in the right place.  Here are the top 3 places to find software on the internet and why I recommend them.  Between these three sites you will be able to find everything you need, without having to block adware:

Download.com
Download.com has been online since 1996 and is the 112th most popular site on the web according to Alexa.com.  They get approximately 17.4 million visitors per month according to TrafficEstimate.com.  They were purchased by CNet a couple of years ago and is one of my favorite websites.  I defintely recommend that you bookmark this site. 

The most important feature about this site is that they check to make sure a piece of software is free of adware and spyware before they add it into their directory.  So anything you find there has their thumbs up, and they have a big and knowledgeable staff checking things out.

I also like the fact that their editors post a quick score about the quality of a piece of software as well as a review on most of the popular titles.  Then they also allow users of the software to add a quick score and review as well, so you can get a really good honest look at a tool before you waste the time to download and install it.  They also display how many times a title has been downloaded.  Obviously if a piece of software is doing something right, it is going to get a lot of attention.

MajorGeeks.com
MajorGeeks.com has been online since 2000 and is the 3612th most popular site on the web according to Alexa.com.  They get approximately 1.4 million visitors per month according to TrafficEstimate.com.  I really like this site because it doesn’t have the “corporate” feel and is more like talking to your neighbor about software.  Your neighbor that is a computer geek anyway. 

They have really great forums and you can find all kinds of great information there.  You are way better off searching for information there than on Google or some other search engine.  You also get a different take on software when you read the reviews and forums posted on MajorGeeks.com. 

Instead of reading reviews from your average computer user or teenager on Download.com, you get to read information from more seasoned and savvy computer users.  From time to time it is nice to know that you are installing something that works well under the hood.  Especially when you are trying to block adware.

Tucows.com
Tucows.com has been online since 1995 and is the 3063rd most popular site on the web according to Alexa.com.  They get approximately 1.5 million visitors per month according to TrafficEstimate.com.  Tucows.com is a favorite amongst the IT Professionals. 

When you go to this site to look for software you are seeing what the pros like to see.  The main advantage to this is that IT Professionals don’t mess around with crappy tools and they don’t fall for the tricks that sneaky adware publishers try to play on the general public.

Plus, they have been on the internet for a long time and their download speeds are very fast.  They are famous for internet downloads, it is what put them on the map.  So you can rest assured that when you go to Tucows.com that you won’t be waiting forever to receive a file.

Technorati Tags:

Posted in Block Adware | No Comments »

If you’re fed up with your slow computer and determined to block adware and spyware, there are some important things you need to know before you start out. Just follow these five tips to block adware thoroughly and effectively.

1. An important factor if you want to block adware is making sure that you avoid sites that offer porn and free games. The reason why this is important is because 85-90% of all adware is found on these types of sites. If you don’t avoid these types of sites, then you run the risk of sneaky adware finding a way to your computer.

2. Another important consideration to block adware is to avoid free software whenever possible. It’s critical that you download software from a reputable site; because a lot of free software is only “free” if you also agree to view related advertisements. If you make sure that you are getting software from a site that tests for adware, then you’ll be OK.

3. You don’t have to a computer geek in order to block adware. A lot of adware comes with really strange names like PSW.Win32.LdPinch.abm and W32/Aplore@MM.  Many people that I speak with say that they get intimated listening to others talk about computers and that you have to have a degree in order to block adware and other pests.  All you need to do is have the right tools, and make sure that you keep them updated and use them frequently.

4. Many people complicate their efforts to block adware by wasting a lot of time in Google or other search engines researching.  This usually takes them on a wild goose chase that leads to a bunch of dead ends.  Let the software tools available on the market take care of all the hard work for you.  There are true “geeks” out there researching the threats out there.  Don’t duplicate their efforts.  Just install the right tool and let it take care of you.

5. You can leverage computer experts even more by using a tool that will block adware for you on auto-pilot. Make sure to invest all of your efforts to block adware and spyware with a software tool that has a real-time monitor.  This is the most important thing that you can do.  Your life is too busy to add something else onto your to-do list.

So if you really want to block adware, follow these tips and you will have years of hassle-free web surfing to come.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Posted in Block Adware | 1 Comment »