Adware and Spyware are malicious software that allows the
creators to spy on your browsing activity, invade your privacy, and flood you
with annoying/offensive pop-ups. Often times your browsers default homepage and
settings can be hijacked and you can not change them back by the normal known
procedures. These software programs are often downloaded onto a user's machine
from the Internet without the user's knowledge and installs itself on your
machine.
Ad-Aware by Lavasoft
Ad-Aware is a tool developed by Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ ) that can
scan the memory, registry and hard drive and external storage devices for known
data-mining, tracking, and other malicious advertising components on your
machine. The program also has a built-in live update tool which can be used to
update the latest signatures from their web servers. Ad-Aware scan will list
any known spywares/adwares and offers to remove or quarantine such components.
However, removing certain components may impact the functionality of the
software applications affected by the spyware/adware. It is advisable to read
the Ad-Aware documentation before removing any files.
Ad-Aware offers free and paid software. The free software,
which is for use on personal machines, can be downloaded from Lavasoft at
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ . Ad-Aware SE personal with advanced features can be purchased from this
site as well.
Lavasoft has also released a Professional edition,
which is recommended for departmental
use, in August 2004. Details can be obtained from (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adawareprofessional/
).
Features in Ad-Aware SE Professional edition as excerpted
from the Lavasoft web site include:
- New command line parameters that allow for silent and
automated operation of Ad-Aware
- UNC support for remote storage of preferences,
definitions, and log files
- New results screens and detailed statistics
- Improved logging and reporting
- Hardened against third party uninstall with encrypted
preference files
- Links to more information on detected content from our
web site
- New safety option that allows you to write protect
sensitive system files such as the Hosts file
- Improved scanning Engine
- Extended disk and registry scanning
- Improved user interface
Spybot Search & Destroy
Spybot - Search & Destroy is another tool which
can be used to detect and remove spyware/adwares of different kinds from your
computer. Spybot-S&D is free and can be downloaded from
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html . The Spybot-S&D
web site provides excellent documentation. Detailed tutorial of how to install
and the software and use it to remove spywares/adwares from you machine can be
found at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/tutorial/index.html .
Spybot-S&D also allows users to clean usage tracks on
shared machines. The software can be used in two modes - Easy Mode (basic) for
new users and Advanced Mode for professional users. Advanced Mode allows users
to fix some registry inconsistencies and extended reports.
A list of features of Spybot-S&D is available on the
site http://www.safer-networking.org/en/features/index.html
.
