Rid Your System of Spyware

How can you tell if your customers' systems have been infected? Look for these symptoms:

• Strange toolbars and Web sites your customer has never seen before are suddenly visible.
• Major Web sites are mysteriously "not available" on the PC, while lesser known sites are.

As your first line of defense, I recommend two software products, Spybot and Ad-Aware. These programs can detect and eradicate spyware. They can also dramatically improve the overall performance of a PC. That's because at any given moment, a computer may be infected by as many as 250 Spyware programs. By using these programs, you not only kill all the evil Spyware, but you also gain back precious system resources.

Both programs are easy to use. Essentially, they are "click button" programs that allow you to check and delete items on a list. They also contain "immunization" modules that protect a system from future attacks. As you install both programs, look for a check-box informing you that program icons will be placed on the desktop. I recommend leaving these check-boxes alone. To run each program, simply double-click on the icon that was created by the installation routine.

Once your systems are in the field, you will still need to manually check them for spyware from time to time. To manually scan customers' PCs using Spybot, start the system, then click on the button that says Check For Problems. Let the program run for about five minutes; when the computer is finished scanning, all listings in red are spyware and should be removed.

Performing a manual scan of your customers' PC with Ad-Aware is similar to the process used in Spybot. Click the Scan Now button to start the manual scan. A message box will come up, with three selections on how to scan. The default selection should say Perform Smart-System Scan, which is the desired process. Click Next, then let Ad-Aware do its thing.

Other Detection Options

• AOL 9.0: America Online includes its own detection client in versions 9.0 and up. The client can be launched from the desktop icon or by going to "keyword spyware" in the actual AOL 9.0 program. This client essentially works the same way as Spybot and Ad-Aware.
• Msconfig.exe: Msconfig.exe is included in Windows and can be used to detect and eradicate spyware. The startups.exe database contains more than 3,000 entries describing all the known programs that can load in the startup routine of a PC. Many of those programs listed and described are likely spyware. Go through the instructions on how to modify msconfig.exe, using startups.exe as a reference. If you see that any of the programs in your customers' startup routines happen to be Spyware, get rid of them.
• Google: If all else fails, turn to Google, which can help you find important spyware repair tools. In the rare instance that none of the other programs remove all Spyware from your customers' PCs, you can manually play detective by feeding clues into the Google search engine, then following up on what you find. This is a bit of a process, but virtually all existing Spyware threats have been logged in the Google directory, and they may be found by searching on related keywords.

David Kary is founder and CEO of rippt.com. He has no affiliation with any products or services mentioned in this article.