How to download and remove Spyware:

Also called adware, spyware is any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.

Begin by downloading the free software:

After clicking on the below link you will be prompted to either "Run", "Save", or "Cancel" the download. It is recommended that you "Save" the file to your Desktop and then double click on the download file to execute it.

After double clicking the program file Ad-Aware will run thorough it's setup process.

Please only leave the "Update definition file now" box checked as seen here. Select "Finish" and and the program will automatically update provided you have a connection to the Internet. Please continue with these directions to scan your system and remove all instances of Adware and Spyware.

How to perform a scan :

If you are among the many who use any one of Kazaa, Morpheus, Bearshare, Gnutella, Limewire, Grokster, Aimster, Imesh, Audiogalaxy, Gator, SurfPlus, topText, RadLight, BonziBuddy, CometCusror and GoHip for any purpose like downloading music from net or sharing files, then it is likely that you have a spyware installed in your system, without even knowing you.

What is spyware? It is nothing more than a small application that monitors your activities on net and make sure that you have a hell time. Some of these software and applications record and monitors every activity that you do on internet while the others are so malicious that they can make your computer a host for the hackers to attack. They take complete control of your PC and force some actions that you otherwise might not be interested in taking.

Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today.

Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability.

Because spyware exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party.

Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers.

Most of us use the freeware and shareware with the very idea that they are meant for the free service of the people but the truth is totally opposite of that, there is nothing like a free lunch and that holds true even here as these shareware and freeware use the private information of their users and sell them. Whether it is just an email to the more secure and important information like passwords, credit card numbers and pin codes, some of them saves all of them and sends them to their vendors who later on use them for a variety of purposes.

One of the most malicious among such category of wares is Gator, which is known to be remembering the users information in order to aid them at various places like filling the forms, accessing the emails and buying anything. It saves the user information and transmits it to its website.