Why is Anti-Spyware Important?

Spyware is a general term used to refer to small software programs that perform certain tasks, in many cases they collect personal information for the purpose of advertising, in other cases these programs deliberately change specific computer settings without the consent or knowledge of the user.

These spyware programs can significantly impact a PC's performance, slowing down a system and making it very difficult to remove or revert the changes made to the PC's configurations.

Anti-spyware software helps protect PCs from spyware and other online threats. Most anti spyware applications are able to run on a schedule which is configured within the program's settings according to the user's preferences.

Not using anti spyware while on the web is dangerous as spammers and hackers have become very resourceful and have found many ways to infect systems even while visiting legitimate sites and clicking on bogus ads.

Where does Spyware come from?

There are scores of ways spyware can infect a PC system, one of the most common is while surfing the web, most people never really think twice about hopping from site to site and sometimes end up at websites that automatically make their browsers download malicious programs. These programs may be stored in cache or temp folders. Unsafe browsers like IE 6 make it very easy for this to happen.

Spyware can also infect a system when the user installs what's known as "pirated software". Popular applications are often traded online via peer to peer networks (P2P) and while the software maybe functional, spyware programs are often included in these programs and by installing a pirated piece of software a PC user may open his doors wide for intrusion.

Spam email is often laden with spyware, viruses and other malware, it is recommended that users never download spyware mail and never open spam email with their web mail accounts.

Is Spyware Protection Alone Enough?

Spyware protection alone is not enough to keep a PC completely safe. Many anti spyware programs actually come integrated with antivirus as well, such as ESET NOD32 and Spyware Doctor with AV. Both of these tools offer two of the most important layers of protection for PC users.

In addition to spyware protection and antivirus, it would be ideal for all PC users to also make use of a personal firewall and a spam blocker, for this the most adequate tool is ESET Smart Security 4.

Paid Tools vs Free Ones

Free anti spyware software is available as well, although many of them are very legitimate and provide a good level of basic protection, there are serious limitations and caveats to using free tools, like:

• There are No Guarantees
• No Technical Support Available (only forums)
• Fewer Software Updates
• Limited number of Features
• Not as Reliable due to the lack of continued development

With that said, here's a short list of free antivirus programs that can offer some basic protection. Again, please consider that these tools will only provide basic protection with limited features available.

• Ad-Aware SE Personal
• Super Anti Spyware
• Spybot Search and Destroy