Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Ad-Aware Is A Must Have

Ad-Aware rocks. I can not talk enough about the good service that this program provides. It works similar to Norton's Anti Virus program only it busts spyware instead of viruses. There is a signature file you can update (and should) on a regular basis and then run the scan looking for harmful spyware. Ad-Aware will then quarantine and remove it for you just like an anti virus program.

Spyware is bad. It invades your privacy. It means someone outside of your work or home knows what you are looking at on the Internet without your knowledge. Spyware can get severe and trick you into downloading their programs, using their products. If you let one in, that one can blast the doors off and let the rest in, opening a Pandora's Box. Ad-Aware stuffs all of the bad stuff back in the box.

A lady at work brought in her laptop. She complained about the pop ups she kept seeing and the websites her browser would take her to without her permission. I ran Ad-Aware on it and it found 445 instances of spyware and malicious programs. That's the highest count I've seen so far - 445! Ad-Aware removed what it could and warned that there were a few items it couldn't remove because they were still running. It asked that the machine be restarted and Ad-Aware would automatically run again before anything loads to remove the remaining programs it couldn't get on the first pass. And it did just that. Her system looks much better now. I got a box of Hostess Apple Spice cup cakes out of the deal. She thinks I did all of the hard work to fix her system and Ad-Aware netted me 8 Hostess cup cakes.

DJI 10463, NASDAQ 2058, SP5 1132
#1 Movie at the box office: You Got Served