Is your machine suddenly running slow?

December 16, 2003
By: Hain Consulting, Inc.

Spyware and Adware are taking over

Sarasota, FL - Memory leaks, fragmented hard drives, and bad connections used to be the main culprits of slowing PC's. But today's day and age it is usually the result of some malicious and maybe not so malicious program, application or applet.

In a day and age where SPAM has made email almost a nuisance we now have even another delinquent that slows down our productivity. Tiny applications buzzed "Spyware" or "Adware" can grow like a fungus and suck the lifecycles out of your CPU.

These programs initiate pop-up adds, track your web surfing, steal email addresses and can even record the keystrokes you make. So the next time you type in your password or credit card number you might just be handing out information that could turn your life upside down.

Many of these applications come from the "freeware" or that 30 day trial you download. But the real malicious ones come in through a backdoor and have their way with your PC. Imbedded in webpages or that dreaded spam, scripts load other files and programs that report back to the mother ship or pop up an ad every x amount of seconds.

It has been said that 90% of all PCs have some sort of these applications on them. One or two of these may go unnoticed but it is very common for PCs to have 10, 20 or even 30 unnecessary applications running in the background. They start up on there own and run as soon as you boot your PC and don't shut down until the PC does. So before you even open your email, web browser or game; 50, 60 or even 70% of your system resources could be taken. Worst case scenario is that the program is so poorly written and it might even crash your system or stop other applications from working.

So why not just go into "Add and Remove Programs" and uninstall them?

Well the programmers that build these programs don't allow for this type of uninstall. You will not even find an icon for them in your start menu. They are pretty much incognito and go to great lengths to not get uninstalled or even identified.

Where does this leave you?

There are many spyware/adware scanners and removal programs and many of them charge $30 to $60 per use. Others are free or at least the scan is free but the removal cost money. Also, these programs only "help" you identify the programs that could possibly be doing the damage. There is never any guarantee that what it finds is the culprit. You still need to know what you are removing or you could end up removing something that you need and do more damage than the spyware/Adware itself.

For more information on spyware/Adware or general maintenance of your PC please contact info@hainconsulting.com