Spyware
- wadE
I was having a conversation recently with someone about computer viruses and spyware, and I
realized that while I have excellent virus protection courtesy of a former employer, I didn't
have anything for spyware.
But I don't regularly visit any questionable sites, so I'm fine... right?
Well, I realized I'm not the only one who uses the home computer, not only does my wife, but
the occassional friend, as well as various family members.
Additionally, the computer started acting even slower than usual lately, so maybe it was time
to see what if anything was on there.
So I downloaded a tool to check, I would have to pay to actually get the option of removing this
stuff, but I'm savvy, I can do it myself and save the 50 bucks.
4349 infections... of spyware.
Oof.
Time to rethink this. The good news is that I found a freeware tool (Ad-Aware) that seems to be
well respected out there. The bad news is that the damn thing locks up when it gets to the final
phase of the scan (and after some searching, it appears this isn't an isolated problem). The
good news is that I can stop the scan before it gets to that lockup point, and clean up what it has
found to that point. The bad news is that I have to sit there and watch is search though hundreds of
thousands of files, directories, registries, etc. The good news is that I'm now down to 500
infections. The bad news is that I still have 500 infections.
The moral of the story is to check out your adware situation. Here ends today's lesson. Amen.
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