We know about the different types of viruses the other day. It is also essential for us to protect our computers from spyware - malicious programs that cause your system to act abnormally, especially targeting the internet browser!! There are plenty of powerful anti-spyware programs out there, and also a lot fake ones. How to choose a reliable one?
If you can afford buying a powerful and effective anti-spyware program, you can go for Spyware Doctor, ZoneAlarm and many more. (Although they offered free version with limitations) Some other popular free anti-spyware applicaiton such as AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition and Ad-Aware 2007 Free are good but they too, have limitations, for there is no real-time protection and no automatic updates available.
If you are a Windows user, you probably would like to have Windows Defender installed to your system too. It is a free spyware protection provided by Microsoft. Other than that, you can install alternatives but be careful, avoid installing fake spyware protection.
Spybot - Search & Destroy is an absolutely free small-size software that performs fast and effective system scans. It provides powerful real-time protection which most free anti-spyware do not provide. You can read the tutorial for installing Spybot - S&D.
HijackThis is another free application. It’s a fast and effective tool to detect and eliminate browser hijackers, but it is not a regular anti-spyware product - it only lists all entries that can be potentially harmful or unwanted, the user makes his/her own decision whether to remove the suspicious results. Therefore, this is more suitable for advance or experienced users. (not recommended for beginner) This tool is also widely discussed in tech troubleshooting forums.
Maybe some of you will start to wander, “Is it okay to run more than one anti-virus or anti-spyware programs?”
Well, this quote should be able to answer the question:
Running two or more real-time anti-virus (anti-spyware/firewall) monitors at the same time is very likely to cause a conflict.
Here’s some friendly reminder:
- Every anti-spyware product relies on its database. Threats appear constatnly and outdated program is unable to stop the most recent of them, so you should update it leastwise once a week or, even better, every time you run it.
- Make sure only one package (of each anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall) has its real time monitoring facility enabled.
Still can’t make decision on which anti-spyware to choose? Take a look at LiewCF’s review.
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October 4th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Hey apple! This is every informative.. thanks for sharing… BTW, my computer is really slow now.. I guess there are too many viruses and spyware.. ;(
October 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
You’re welcome curryegg. Hmm..if it’s really slow, I suggest you backup all important files and reformat your system. =)
October 4th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Those software won’t help much…
Best is to reformat the drive that is infected with virus and keep a partition of the hard disc for the important data..
October 4th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Ive heard about spybot before but im not convinced enough. Now that Apple introduce it, im gonna use it. Nice post.
October 4th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
anyway, just be careful on what site you visit and what things you click…sometimes it just happen without knowing it..but still prevention is better than curing.
Thanks my lovely Orange ^^
October 4th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
harlo….Ad aware good mer??haiz..I scan many times..spys still exist…haiz…make me headache..how???other recommend??
October 5th, 2007 at 6:39 am
Ad-Aware is good if you get the full version. Most free software only allow you to detect spyware but can’t really remove them. For real time protection that does not “expire”, so for I think only Spybot- S&D. Maintain your PC health once in a week is good. Or you can manually set certain system restore point, if the system really become worse, just use the ’system restore’ function. Worse to the worse, reformat - fast and clean (or should I say almost clean)