Adware is a type of software that displays advertisements on your computer. These advertisements often pop-up as you boot your machine. The reason Adware is installed and keeps track of your activities is to display those annoying advertisements as a kind of lottery like you have to win in order to get free services. Yes, that is right, companies give away free as a way to thank you for buying their product.
Many forms of Adware have benefits but also many dangers. Adware can sneak its way into your computer without your knowledge. It can get itself installed when you download other software that is infected. Once installed, it works behind the scenes and can be very hard to remove. It can also mess with the default settings of your computer and web browser and slow down your computer. Adware might also attempt to piggy-back itself on software that you downloaded such as free games and screen savers. Unfortunately, you can’t really uninstall Adware.
That being said, here are the top 7 ways to tell if you have adware on your computer according to Graham Shear.
- It can be hard to start or resume your computer programs. If you type ambitious in a DOS command prompt, this is what you should see. If you see only symbols, such as 001, then your computer may have a Trojan virus.
- Your computer can slow down considerably. If you notice that the speed of your computer changes almost instantly, then it is.)
- You might be getting more pop-up advertisements than you ever did before.
- Your computer is not running smoothly overall. If your computer is running slower, though you are not sure what is wrong, then more than likely you have adware on your computer.
- Adware can change the way your web browser works. In addition, it can change the way your web browser views websites for example, by adding a web search toolbar to your web browser. This can partly be good since it can make searching easier. However, when you look at both parts of this statement with the same meaning, they are both true.
- You might find that your computer has all of a sudden seemed to run slower than usual. If you think that your computer has been hit by a virus, it could be that the virus is using all of your computer’s memory. It is possible that you have more than you thought.
- Finally this is a more serious suggestion. If you think you have enjoyed some program that you downloaded, and you think you can now delete the program without having to worry about any of the files that are on it, then you’ve got to do it right now. Click the delete button on the main page.
Don’t run your anti-virus program just yet. Open up your anti-virus program. Look through it and make sure that it is fully updated. If it isn’t then you may be infected. Once you are infected, you will probably be right on track to have to delete this program.
BackUp Your Data
If you have reason to believe that your computer is corrupted, then you’ll want to make sure that you have every file that you’ve saved backed up. This is the only way to make sure that you can get back to a previous version of your computer.
Shut down your computer
If you’ve found that your computer is not working properly, then you’ll want to shut it down so that you can reboot with just your basic needs.
Open up your Internet Browser
Before hitting the delete key, make sure that you have opened up Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, or any other browser. This is the best way to ensure that you are safe from safety infecting your computer.
Look for updates online
The Internet is not completely tamper-proof. olesp now has many more active users than it did when I started using it. This means that there is more and more spyware and malicious code waiting to infect your computer. Many of these dangerous programs are active mainly because of the fact that they can be downloaded from the Internet.
(Another good source of info about adware by Graham Shear is available athttp://www.internet-monitor.com/idall.htm)
Prepare yourself
Be aware of the possibilities. Sometimes, you can’t tell that you are infected until it’s too late. It’s better to err on the side of caution.