Information about What is Spyware can be found here.

You should update your definitions each time you run a spyware or anti-virus scan. We suggest running scans once a week or perhaps once a month if you don't use the internet very often.

You need to be connected to the internet to perform the update (obviously) so if you have a dial-up connection then you will need to connect to the internet before proceeding.

Using Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE

1. Click on START then PROGRAMS then LAVASOFT AD-AWARE then LAVASOFT AD-AWARE.

2. Usually (but not always) a message will be displayed that says "Your definitions are 15 days old. Would you like to check for updates now?"

3. Click on then OK button

4. The "Performing Web Update" window will open. Click on the CONNECT button

5. A message saying "New Definitions File is Available. Download and Install this File?" Click on the OK button

6. Ad-Aware will then retrieve the update and install it. Click on the FINISH button when it appears.

Now the main Ad-Aware screen will show. If you clicked NO when you were asked whether you wanted to check for updates or the question wasn't asked then you can click on the "CHECK FOR UPDATES" link on this screen. It appears as an underlined link as if it was in a web page. If you click on this then just follow the instructions above to update your definitions.

Once you have updated your definitions ...

1. click on the START button.

2. Make sure that the PERFORM FULL SYSTEM SCAN option is selected. The smart system scan is faster but doesn't scan everything and I feel that if you're going to take the trouble to do this you might as well do it properly.

3. In addition make sure that SEARCH FOR NEGLIGABLE RISK ENTRIES and SEARCH FOR LOW RISK THREATS are also ticked for the same reason.

4. Click on the NEXT button to start the scan.

Ad-Aware has a funny idea of what are critical objects and may list items such as cookies and MRU's as critical objects. A cookie is a text file stored on your computer by a website that you have visited. It stores information that you entered into the web page from your keyboard or selected via your mouse. A cookie can only be read by the web site that created it so it is only storing information for the use of someone where you have chosen to give them that information. Consequently we don't consider cookies to be a real threat. To use a web site with a "shopping cart" function you will usually create cookies and if you choose to automatically log into a website which requires password access then you usually create a cookie. MRU's are Most Recently Used items. These are not a threat as they can't be accessed remotely from your computer but someone else using your computer can look at a MRU to see what documents or web pages you might have been looking at recently. Consequently these are not really a threat either unless you are trying to hide something from someone in your family. Once it has finished scanning it usually finds SOMETHING to complain about. (My recent scan showed 40 negligible objects)

1. Click on the NEXT button and you'll see a more detailed list of the items found. (My 40 items were all MRU lists and so of no real concern).

2. Tick all of the boxes to remove all of the items (better to be safe than sorry)

3. Click on the NEXT button. Mine just said "40 items will be removed. Continue?"

4. Click on the OK button.

The selected items will be Quarantined rather than be deleted. This means that you can get them back if you wanted to. For example sometimes if you installed a program which came with ad-ware and you remove the ad-ware then the program doesn't work any more and you might want to keep using it. In this case you might have to restore them ad-ware from quarantine (or perhaps just re-install the program). Now you have finished so you can just close Ad-Aware or you can click on the OPEN QUARANTINE LIST option to see what has been quarantined from all scans that you've done so far. You can click on any of the items in the list to examine it or you can right click on an item and choose DELETE to permanently delete them. You can even choose DELETE ALL which I do in order to free up the disk space used. Click on the STATUS button to return to the normal Ad-Aware screen or just close Ad-Aware when you have finished with your quarantined items.

For further information just read the Ad-Aware help.

Using Spybot Search to Destroy

You need to be connected to the internet to perform the update (obviously) so if you have a dial-up connection then you will need to connect to the internet before proceeding.

1. Click on START then PROGRAMS then SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY then SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY.

2. Click on the UPDATE button on the left hand side.

3. Click on the SEARCH FOR UPDATES button at the top of the form

Spybot will then list various categories of updates that you can download - normally you should tick all of the boxes

1. Click on the DOWNLOAD UPDATES button and usually the selected updates will be downloaded and installed automatically. However sometimes I have received messages about bad CRC errors which indicate that the updates didn't download correctly. If this happens to you then look at the buttons at the top of the form - at the button between the SEARCH FOR UPDATES and the DOWNLOAD UPDATES buttons and you can select a different location to download the files from. One of these usually works ok so select a different option and then click on the DOWNLOAD UPDATES option again.

2. Click on the IMMUNISE button on the left hand side. You will generally get a message saying something like "8822 bad products already blocked, 3320 additional protections possible - please immunise!" Click on the OK button to close this message box.

3. Click on the Immunise button at the top of the form.

4. Click on the SEARCH AND DESTROY button on the left hand side.

5. Click on the CHECK FOR PROBLEMS button.

Spybot will then scan for problems. When the scan has finished ...

1. tick all of the boxes

2. click on the FIX SELECTED PROBLEMS button at the top of the form.

3. Once you have done this and you have received the message that all selected problems have been fixed then you can exit the program.

For further information just read the Spybot help.