The Principle of Spyware and Things to Pay Attention to When Purchasing Protection

A few years ago, Web- and e-mail-borne viruses were the worst enemy of any computer user. Though viruses and worms still cause more damage in compromised or lost data, a newer, more harmful threat, commonly called spyware, steals users' productivity and peace of mind. Spyware refers to annoying programs that the users might have even consented to being installed on his Computer at first, because some use was promised, but then realized that the main function of such a program is to spy on your surfing or even forcibly redirect the user's Web browser. Apart of spying on intimate details of your life such software drains your computer's resources, slows down your Internet connection and thus makes working with your PC less pleasant.

Since spyware's intent is not to attract any attention of the user, it just doesn't come with an uninstaller nor is it listened in the Windows menu. So detecting such software and uninstalling it is just not as easy as one might think. The good news though is, that there are multiple ways to protect your Computer from most kind of spyware that is circulating the Internet. But you shouldn't use the software that comes with your operating system. The main reason for it is, that this is the software nearly everybody is using, so efforts in outsmarting it are rewarded the most. And since that software is not as frequently updated as most of the anti-spyware available for just a few bucks, outsmarting it is quite easy and done thousands of times a week. (Not just the few times you hear about spectacular cases in the media.)

So when purchasing an anti-spyware-software the principal feature should be the frequency at which the software's database is updated. The best would be a real-time protection, but a database that is updating every hour is still OK. A second thing you should pay attention to is the convenience of using the software. There is no use in using the best software available, when it can just be used by experts or when you have to adjust it every time you start your Computer. (You'll never do that!)