How to Remove Spyware From Your PC

With all of the trojens, viruses, and spyware (oh my!) that are out there, sometimes knowing how you were infected is not quite as important as getting rid of the unwanted intruders. In the article, “How to Remove Spyware from Your PC” Andrew Brandt of PC World dives into the wonderful world of malicious software removal. Lately, removing these uninvited guests has become somewhat more difficult because “some types of spyware download and install additional components, often hiding pieces of code from Windows to make removal even harder.” This “How to” type of article provides a blueprint for removing all types of malicious programs.

The first step is to “Make Sure It's an Infection” because all too often, slow computers will just simply have too many applications running with too little system memory available to use or have a full or fragmented hard drive. The next step is a “Manual Analysis” of any of the spyware programs that are left over from the initial removal scans. Essentially, you need to find out exactly what it is before you can remove it. And the final step is to “Remove the Reprobates” from your PC using the removal program Hijack This. This step must be done carefully because if you remove the wrong component, you can render your PC unbootable.