What is Adware? How Do I Prevent It?
Q. How did I get infected in the first place!?
A. Adware could be bundled up with legitimate software in the install process. Usually there will be a check box that you can uncheck during the download process so you don't have to install the adware. Sometimes, it can be installed by a drive by download. A drive by download is a virus that automatically installs when you visit a web page. You could also just download the adware from a file hosting website (megaupload, rapidshare ect) that said it was a different useful program. Do some research on what you download before you download it. If you searching on Google for downloads, I would suggest installing Mcafee's SiteAdvisor add on for Internet Explore and Firefox. Firefox is also a much safer browser then IE, so I suggest using Firefox when surfing the web.
Q. How to I stop these pop-up advertisements!?
A. The only true way to stop these is too uninstall the program. Sometimes, you can just uninstall it using the add or remove programs feature. These only work for some programs, like MyWebSearch. Most programs will put up a little fight, like appearing after you tried to uninstall the program. A good antivirus program should be able to remove it. I suggest Malware Bytes. What you want to do is to download and install the program over at malwarebytes.org and update it, then do a full scan and remove anything that it found. If it can't remove it, post over at the Malware Bytes forum that is found over at their website.
Q. Why do people make this? Is it too just annoy people?
A. No. People make this to make money. Advertisers pay the owner of their program to advertise their product on the software. It's the same reason why you see Google advertisements on some websites. When you click them, the owner of the website gets a small amount of money. But it all adds up if the website has high traffic.
This is all of the information you would need to know about adware. Watch out for these!
Published by Seth Luke
My name is Seth Luke. I enjoy learning about computer viruses as well as listening to music. Feel free to contact me at jtuli007@gmail.com View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentOne thing you should add to the discussion is that adware's major issue is that it is often very poorly written code, and hence can cause crashes by accident.
Good info!
An alternative for surfing the internet with real time safe surf capabilities is AVG's LinkScanner at www.linkscanner.avg.com Many threats on the internet last less than a day so real time protection is essential.