You don't need to pay for expensive software to remove spyware or other hijacking type software; you can do it yourself for free (with the help of some great free software). It is also a relatively painless procedure, and can be done easily by any computer user that is able to use the "Find" feature in Windows.

Getting Started

In this tutorial, you will learn how to clear your internet browser's cache, how to find hidden folders, how to find hidden files, and most importantly how to find the spyware.

This guide will assume that you are using Microsoft Windows XP and that you are using the Internet Explorer browser so the steps may vary from Windows 98 or Windows 95, but the premise is the same for all.

You will also need two additional pieces of software

Spybot Search and Destroy
AdAware
Go ahead and download them now and return when they are installed.
A Little background on spyware

Ad ware or spyware as it is more commonly known are software programs that sit in memory while you are using your computer and monitors the things you are doing, whether it is surfing the internet or using your email. It watches you so that it can deliver advertisements from companies that want your money.

Some of these programs are innocuous little programs that are run along side of the programs they are attached to serving up ads only while the host program is running. Most however, get installed with programs that you might think is helpful, such as a calendar, and run all the time, constantly bombarding you with pop ups or changing your browsers homepage and search settings.

These "bad apples" are also very difficult to remove. Every time you set your homepage or search settings, it comes along behind you and changes them back to theirs. They may even rewrite web pages as your viewing them! I have encountered spyware that, while running, would display Google's page but with their results! Every time you searched for Spybot or AdAware, you would be presented with their products for removing spyware. What does that tell you? They either wrote the spyware to infect machines so that they could make money by removing it, or they hired somebody to it for them.

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