If you’re like many computer users, you may be wondering to how to remove adware. However, there are also many other computer users who don’t ever realize that they have adware on their computer or who aren’t familiar with what it is.
Adware is not illegal (although malware that masquerades as adware is). But it can become highly irritating. It is justified by the companies that use it on the grounds that it enables them to generate extra revenues so that they can offer their programs at lower costs or even offer free programs. Since it is a form of marketing and advertising, in spite of the fact that it is shameless promotion and often very irritating it is legally defended. But, just as you as a consumer have the right to hit the “mute” button on the TV remote during commercials and have the right to switch to satellite radio if you are sick and tired of radio broadcast advertisements, so you also have the right to remove adware from your computer.
Adware’s biggest problem to you, the consumer, is that it can hinder the performance of your computer. It can really gum up the works and make your computer start running slowly; it can also make it very difficult to get certain programs to run in the first place. So, besides being irritated by the pop-up ads, you could also experience some serious computer problems via adware.
How can you tell if you have adware on your computer?
*You find advertisements within applications
*You experience slow or crawling shut-down or start-up
*You have a slow Internet connection
*You experience software failures
*Pop-up ads show up on your desktop
*You find your system freezing up or crashing for no clear reason; you might also get system shut-downs and automatic restarts for no clear reason
*You get pop-up search results that relate back to websites you’re reading, or such results which relate to keywords that you type into other search engines
*You wake up to find yourself with a whole new Internet home page
*You experience “gum up” when you are refreshing or loading your desktop
*You find new toolbars in your Internet and/or Internet browser
*You suddenly discover brand new online favorites and bookmarks, or suddenly new find new programs in your start-up list of programs
*You experience a sudden change in host files; so, when you type in the address of a familiar website, you keep getting taken to another, unfamiliar website
Adware can create the slowness or faultiness in your computer’s performance because it takes up Internet bandwidth and takes up your computer’s personal memory space.
Not only that, but adware can masquerade as malware. If your computer’s registry reads a piece of malware as adware, as the devious people who would create such a thing intend, then it will simply allow the adware onto your computer – and it could even fool your firewall into letting it through, so there is no reason to believe that just because you have a firewall up that you are insulated against getting disguised malware.
So, you do have a very good reason for wanting to know how to remove adware. How can you go about this? Well, if you are something of an advanced “computer geek”, you can attempt to remove known adware programs manually, using the Add/Remove programs function within your control panel. But, first of all, malicious adware programs aren’t even going to show up as listed in your computer’s registry. So you may not know about certain malware that you have inadvertently downloaded to your computer. But, at any rate, if you use this approach, when you find a program that you know or suspect to be a piece of adware, just check it and click Remove.
But many of you guys probably don’t want to try this at home. And no-one can blame you for that. So, there are adware scanner and removal programs that you can use to help you out. Now, you should not rely just on the anti-virus software that you’ve got. These are not looking for adware; they are only looking for viruses and obvious spyware. Since adware is technically legal, these programs are not equipped to sniff it out. They are equipped to find programs that are illegal.
So, once you have downloaded or installed your adware finding software program, start off by clicking the “Upgrade” button to make sure you have all of the latest updates. Adware programs usually don’t charge you just to have them on the computer or for doing scans. You will be charged, unless you have already paid up front for the program, if adware is found and it wants to remove it for you. Also, to prevent future adware from getting onto your program, just choose “Immunize”.
You should continue running your adware scanner after a restart until it does not come up with anything. If you do this three or four times and it still comes up with adware, reboot your computer in Safe Mode so that the adware programs cannot hide in the background.
Now, adware typically is attached to programs that you actually want. So, your removal program could remove them when it attempts to remove adware. If you use “Quarantine”, this temporarily disables a program and puts it into a special folder that you can check out later to see if you want to completely remove the program.
So, if you have been wondering how to remove adware, this should serve as a help to you.
Tags: Adware