No matter how careful you are, there’s a good chance your computer will eventually have some sort of spyware hidden away. Even my own machine has been hit, which goes to prove the point. There are too many Windows computers out there with no protection against spyware, and this is why it is spreading rapidly. Alarmingly, they are cropping up ever more frequently. According to a 2005 study by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 61 percent of surveyed users’ computers had some form of spyware. 92 percent of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 91 percent reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware. (source: wikipedia)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware) defines spyware thus:

“Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on computers and collects little bits of information at a time about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user’s personal computer. Sometimes, however, spywares such as keyloggers are installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer on purpose in order to secretly monitor other users.

While the term spyware suggests that software that secretly monitors the user’s computing, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits and sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software and redirecting Web browser activity. Spyware is known to change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and/or loss of Internet or functionality of other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.”

There are less harmful forms of spyware like tracking cookies, but these are still compromising your privacy However much of the spyware out there is dangerous. It is vital to keep this off your machine, or if it is on there already, it must be destroyed before it can do damage such as reveal your bank details. Here are some tools you really should consider installing on your machine to scan for and delete unwanted spyware. Bear in mind you may need to run several of these tools to eradicate problems completely; no tool will find everything so it is best to run them in conjunction.

i) Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is a well-known anti-spyware tool, as of July 2010 it is at release 8.3. It’s available in several versions including a free version for personal use only. (http://www.lavasoft.com) For those who pay, there are added features such as a firewall, anti-rootkit detection and even parental control.

ii) Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org) is a widely-known freeware tool for the detection and removal of spyware.
It is currently at release 1.6.2, and updates are frequently released. It also now includes TeaTimer, which alerts the user to any changes in the Windows Registry. As the registry should only be changed when a program is updated, installed or uninstalled, an unexpected alert can thus mean spyware is present. It is known to conflict with some commercial security programs however, such as Norton or McAfee, so it may be worth considering the use of another anti-virus program such as AVG or Avast to run alongside Spybot.

iii) Malwarebytes Anti-Malware comes in two forms: a paid and a free version. The free version, although functional, must be run manually whereas the paid form can be set up to run scheduled scans as well as provide real-time protection. It is intended to detect spyware or malware that other programs miss, so even if you find that scans on your existing tools show as clean, consider running this tool too as you have more chance of finding a deeply-hidden bit of spyware the more tools you use.
Make sure to use these tools in addition to any existing tools you have in order to maintain your security; it is insufficient nowadays just to rely on your current anti-virus solution. Above all, be sure to actually run these scans frequently; it is even more important to do so if your computer is shared with other members of your family.  (http://www.malwarebytes.org)

Despite all this however, it may be that it proves impossible to remove some particularly nasty forms of spyware. Some programs are detected, removed, then recreate themselves on the next reboot and it’s nigh-on impossible to figure out what is causing it. If all else fails, the only solution is a complete rebuild of your computer. For this reason, it is essential to take regular backups of your important data (preferably to external hard drives or recordable DVD) so that if the worst happens, you can rebuild it and restore your data once that is done. The best time to ensure you are protected from spyware is to get it set up when your computer is new or newly-rebuilt.