What Is Adware

Adware one of the most commonly misunderstood form of malware right next to the common virus. The issue with Adware is people try to assume that they know what it is but the thing to keep in mind with Adware is it rarely comes alone. When it comes to malware Adware is one of the most common types but it is generally coupled with a form of malware such as a Trojan or spyware. None of these will break the computer, but they are annoying and can get some information about you if you are not careful.

What Is Adware

Adware is a form of malware that as it title says is meant to get revenue for the creator in the form of ads. Now they are generally harmless depending on the ad agency that they used but many of them can get your private information. Most forms of adware come in the form of a toolbar. This is because they can easily integrate into your web browser making it really easy to display the ads. They are generally shown from some sort of java code so turning off java should end the ads but we want to get rid of them permanently.

Removal

This is very dependent on the type of malware that you have on your computer. If it is a toolbar then that is very simple to remove and I have explained that in an article which is located here. But what if this is not a toolbar and is a file. This is where it gets to be annoying, because we either have to find the file its self or use a variety of malware scanners. Since it would be to difficult to diagnose every type of adware that there is and where it is located we will use scanners to do the work for us. But you must first ask yourself have I downloaded anything recently? If so what was it. Generally adware is contracted through some sort of download so first look at every program that you have downloaded. If it is not from a trusted company such as Microsoft or adobe then LOOK THEM UP. Chances are that is where the malware is coming from.

Now let's say that your malware is some form of file and not a program. I am not going to force you to look through folders and thousands of files. That would take hours, and it is just unnecessary. So we will be using scanners to do all of the real work for us. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the links to the scanners. Use HitmanPro first this will probably find all of the malware first and it does not require you to install it.

Protection

As always you should have antivirus and a functioning firewall for your computer. I have written a guide on protecting your computer from malware. The guide is located here and gives you free recommendations to protect your computer.

Scanners

HitmanPro: http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro/
Panda Active Scan: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/
Malwarebytes: http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Super AntiSpyware: http://www.superantispyware.com/
Bitdefender Quick Scan: http://quickscan.bitdefender.com/

Use This One At Your Own Risk. The power eraser is very sensitive.
Norton Power Eraser: http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/npe.aspx