Ousting Spyware from Your PC

The devious programs may be responsible for a reader's computer slowdown. Here are some tools to stomp them out.

If your PC has slowed down considerably, You need to start by running an anti-spyware program, or possibly more than one, to try to clean it up. You can start with three decent free programs, Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, or the new Microsoft (MSFT ) Anti-Spyware. Download one, try it, and let it remove what it finds. If that doesn't clear it up, try another.

Some spyware infections turn out to be all but ineradicable. When that's the case, about the only thing you can do is back up all your data, use the disk that came with your computer to restore it to factory condition, and then reinstall your programs and reload your data from the backup. I've had to do this myself on a badly infected PC.

Source : Businessweek Online