Spyware has become a HUGE problem for home and business computers over the years. The good news is that it's usually easy to remove, easy to clean up, and easy to prevent.

What is spyware? Most often a reference to spyware is a misnomer for malware. The name implies malicious software. Generally it is a program running on your computer without your knowledge that may perform devious actions without your consent, or a program that you are aware of that performs devious actions without your consent. This Wikipedia article is packed with further details. Malware is something that you do NOT want on your computer. Most malware is designed to generate income unscrupulously by displaying advertisements or by displaying false search results from sites like Google or Yahoo.

There are many symptoms of malware application running, here are a few common ones:

• Decrease in performance
• Unusual amounts of pop-up advertisements
• Unusual search engine results
• Crashes & freezing
• Unable to access certain web pages

Worse yet are computer viruses and worms. These are malicious programs created to cause trouble. Some will crash your PC. Others will attempt to record everything you type, potentially sending password and credit card numbers to it's creator. Often these programs have the ability to copy themselves and spread via networks and email.