Where Can I Get a Free Download Version of Spybot?
Spybot: Search and Destroy is a program that allows you to prevent and eliminate spyware on your computer. Spyware refers to programs that are malicious and can make unauthorized changes to your computer such as your home page. They can also make ads pop up on your computer without your permission, and generally slow your computer's performance. Fortunately, you can download and use a free program like SpyBot: Search and Destroy to clear your computer of these threats.
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Spybot Home Page
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You can get a free copy of Spybot at the website of the group that puts out the program, Safer Networking. Spybot is completely free on this site, and you can even get free spyware updates occasionally. Spybot has been listed in magazines like PC World as a good anti-spyware option. The software is constantly being upgraded, and sometimes new options are added.
Spybot versus Other
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While you can buy anti-spyware software at any computer store, free options like Spybot are often nearly as good, though they may have fewer features. The program AVG, for example, has a free version, but also has versions you need to buy that have many more options such as a firewall. Compared with other free options, though, Spybot has more features and more advanced tools, including tools for preventing spyware from getting on your computer in the first place, and tools that let you fight particularly resilient spyware that resists attempts to delete it.
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Updating
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Once you have downloaded and installed Spybot, it's important to constantly update your software. Spyware is continually evolving. If you don't click on the "Search for Updates" button in the Spybot program weekly or fairly regularly, there may be spyware programs on your computer that the program cannot find because it doesn't know how to recognize their new configuration.
Scanning
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The "Check for problems" button in Spybot will let you scan your computer for whatever spyware may be lurking there. This scan will usually take several minutes, depending on how large your computer's hard drive is. Once it finishes, you'll be able to see a comprehensive list of all the spyware threats Spybot found. You can click on the box next to each threat, which will select all of the files associated with that threat found on your computer. The "Fix Selected Problems" button will then delete this problem from your computer's hard drive.
Other Tools
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Spybot also has an "Advanced Tools" section. You should be careful here if you don't know what you're doing, since these tools are quite powerful. One of them allows you to see which programs are scheduled to start automatically the next time your computer reboots. The reason this is useful, is that many spyware programs will prevent you from easily deleting them by integrating themselves into your computer's restart process, automatically reinstalling themselves every time your computer starts again. You can stop these processes from occurring with this tool. The tool will help guide you by highlighting in red any processes that are suspicious.
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