What is Spyware?
Gator - WhenU
Comet Cursor - Xupiter Toolbar

These annoying programs hijack your computer, track your Internet movements and unethically cheat honest companies out of business.

Uninstall them today!

Keeping Your Computer Safe

by Steve Labinski, Editor

    Have you installed Kazaa on your computer???

There are many dangers on the web, including viruses, hackers, spyware, Trojans, malware and adware. We at Texas Cooking have created this help page for the growing number of our readers who have been tricked into installing spyware on their computer system, and can't get rid of it.

What is Spyware?

These are programs like Comet Cursor, Kazaa, Gator and the Xupiter Toolbar. They are often running even when you are not online. They produce pop-up ads on webpages as you surf around, to the point of annoyance.

Why do these programs do this?

It pays their bills. If you click on a banner for an online casino, they get a commission. The will also make commission if you go farther and spend money there.

Browser hijacking is another problem. One day, you open up your browser and your home page is not there. Instead is an unknown, unwarranted page or toolbar.

These programs follow your browser activity and, even worse, makes your computer vulnerable to taking your personal data.

Now there is nothing unethical or wrong about making money on the Internet. We aspire to do this with our own websites. However, I am not about to write a program, trick people into installing it so that it prevents them from visiting my competitors, or substitutes their sponsor advertising with my own. From the point of view of independent website operators, these people are thieves.

Programs like Kazaa are peer-to-peer file sharing programs. New Trojans and viruses are written today to exploit these connections, so beware.

How do you remove spyware? Well, it is difficult, because many of them conveniently have forgotten to include an Uninstall feature.

I recommend that you visit and bookmark the website www.spywareinfo.com. This informative site contains a continuously-updated treasure of information on spyware. If click on their link to the Online Parasite Scanner, you can download Spybot Search & Destroy (freeware). I have personally used Spybot Search and Destroy on our own systems to successfully eradicate spyware.

Of course, read through the instructions carefully, and use it at your own risk. My personal experience with it has been problem-free. Another program that has been recommended to by others is AdAware. I have not personally tried it, but have heard it works very well.

The software that hides in your system may cause your computer to crash, run more slowly and sluggishly. We urge you to fight back and take control of your computer using the protection methods listed above.

More Resources:

www.pcpitstop.com -PC Pitstop's website has a number of great tools and programs that allow you to remove parasite-ware and scumware from your computer.

www.doxdesk.com - Doxdesk also has an online parasite checker, plus lots of helpful information on spyware.

Browser Security Tutorial Learn about all those individual security settings in your browser. Prevent sneaky programs from installing themselves on your system.

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