Step 4: Keeping Spyware off your Computer

Now that you have cleaned your computer of spyware for now, it still is prone to spyware infection. Here are steps you can take to reduce or prevent spyware accessing your computer.

1. DO NOT install file-sharing programs. These are often laden with dozens of spyware programs, ad delivery files, and tracking software to generate revenue. It is also easy to detect computer locations from these sorts of programs for hackers, viruses and other malicious software. File-sharing programs are often used for illegal activity anyway, so it is better that you uninstall them, and then remove the spyware using Ad-Aware.
2. Don’t register for every single website or give your email address to every site that asks for it. Often these sites will send emails that can download spyware to your computer. This goes double for opening spam messages.
3. Update your version of Windows. Go to http://www.windowsupdate.com/ and ensure you have every critical and recommended update for your computer. If you have Windows XP, ensure you have Service Pack 2. These security updates will close loopholes in Windows that spyware often takes advantage of.
4. Set your homepage to something safe, like google.com, yahoo.com or Microsoft.com.
5. Read the privacy agreements of web pages you use and programs you download to install. If it mentions that they can collect demographic information, anything to do with your name, ZIP code, computer configuration, web browsing habits, or anything of the sort, even if it says “non-identifiable” or “non-personal” information, do not use the program or website. This is often a license to use spyware.
6. Disconnect your computer from the Internet or shut it off when not in use. This saves power anyway.
7. Lobby your legislators for tough anti-spyware laws and stiff penalties for violators.

Troubleshooting

Download Issues

If the program will not download, try a different mirror or download link from www.lavasoft.de. If it is sluggish, timing out or freezing up, spyware may be eating so much of your connection that it cannot download. Other possibilities are that the site is down, your connection is bad, or a host of other problems. If this is the case, simply try again later. If your computer is the problem, then download it from a different computer, burn it to a CD and install it on yours manually.

Installation Issues

If the program will not install, chances are the download is corrupted. Simply download the file from a different site. Also, check to see that there is enough free disk space, that there is no program interfering with the installation (such as an anti-virus program), and that you have enough memory. Most of the time, installation is fairly trouble-free.

Scanning Issues

If the program freezes or cannot finish scanning, even after restarting the computer, then chances are spyware is crashing the computer when its removal is attempted. In this case, restart your computer, and just before the Windows logo appears, press F8 several times until a start-up menu appears. If the Windows logo appears with no menu, it didn’t work, so restart and try again. Select “Safe Mode” and then run Ad-Aware. This will prevent the spyware from starting up. If the computer crashes randomly or other issues arise, try the typical troubleshooting: uninstall and reinstall the program, restart your computer, or try downloading a different version. Also, ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements. Additional troubleshooting options are in the program’s help file.

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