How Not to Get an Adware Infection in the First Place

Adware is a nuisance. It consists of obnoxious little programs that install themselves on your computer and display advertisements, often as you browse the web, and in some cases send your web browsing history, as well as other pieces of your personal information, back to their mothership. In the process of doing all this, it invites all its friends along, and together they throw a raucous party on your computer, trashing the thing in the process, and making everything go agonizingly slowly. And, as anyone whose computer has gotten an adware infection knows, adware is not easy to get rid of. Many programs on the market claim to solve the problem, but few can get rid of everything. In many cases, the unfortunate owners of adware-ridden computers are forced to apply the Noah's Ark method, backing up all their files, formatting their hard disk, and reinstalling everything. Here are some tips to avoid this happening to you.

First, be judicious about downloading. Obviously, this is a talent that comes with experience, (and often bad experiences) but a little common sense goes a long way. Things that pop saying things like "Free Download!!!" are usually a bad idea. Don't touch them. Download programs only from sites that you trust, or that look reputable. Install some sort of antivirus or antispyware scanner on your computer, and scan everything you download before opening it.

Also, be very careful about peer to peer programs. A great deal of the files on the various networks are actually deliberately mislabeled malware. Fortunately, however, files like this are fairly easy to weed out. First, check the size. Are you trying to download a movie? Odds are it will weigh more than 200 KB. Also, look at the tag. Is it exactly what you searched for? If so, it is likely something else, masquerading as the thing you wanted. Even if the filename doesn't match exactly, you should still make sure it's relevant to what you searched for. If the tag is conspicuously missing key identifying information, odds are it's a fake. When you do download a file you think is good, be sure to scan it before running it. And watch out for .exe files. Especially programs named setup.exe that come all by themselves in their own archive. They are almost invariably bad news.

Additionally, watch out for bundled software. Many of the more disreputable freeware programs on the internet offer you opportunities to install bundled software from various "sponsors". Notorious examples of seemingly innocent pieces of bundled software include WeatherBug and the WhenUSearch toolbar. Avoid these like the plague, and in general try to steer clear of the programs that they come with.

If you do get an adware infection, get rid of it as soon as possible. Various guides to doing this are available on the internet, but as a general word of caution, I would urge you to be very careful to make sure you have gotten rid of everything before you declare victory. Although you may have deleted one specific program, like the aforementioned WhenUSearch toolbar, it is likely that it has distributed other pieces of software throughout your system, and that everything will be back in full force the next time you start your computer.