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Sorry to intrude on your complacency but did you realise that your actions could well be monitored by others?  I’m referring to your computer activity and the numerous intrusive items that abound and attempt to infect your computer during an innocent Web surfing session.  These pieces of code are generally known as spyware and will attempt, often successfully, to infiltrate themselves into your computing set up.

The spyware has been designed to check through your files for personal data such as browsing habits, system configuration details and, more worryingly, banking details and passwords that are stored on your system.  The results of this search and monitoring process will then be sent to those responsible for infecting your computer in the first place.  While not all spyware is used for criminal purposes, in fact marketing is a more common reason for its appearance; it can use up valuable system resources and affect your computer’s performance.

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To help provide protection from this insidious attack on your computer you should consider investing in a program, such as Spy Cleaner, to search out any spyware that is already on your system.  Spy Cleaner, developed by Manaccom and distributed in the UK by Phoenix Global Software, makes use of a database of known spyware to check whether your computer has been infected.  It is therefore important that the database is kept up-to-date.

Spy Cleaner has a Live Update feature which allows you to keep both the program and database up-to-date.  However this is not an automatic or scheduled service.  It will need to be manually activated at regular intervals when it will connect to the appropriate Web site and instigate the download process.

Once installed, Spy Cleaner’s first assigned task should be to scan the various components of your computer system.  The program allows the user to be selective in choosing the elements to be scanned.  Check boxes can be used to designate areas such as memory, Registry, cookies and specific drives for scanning.  Depending upon the amount of data, the scan can be time consuming.  You are kept informed as to the number of files, folders, Registry keys and cookies that have been checked and any discovered spyware references in each category. 

At the conclusion of the scan you are presented with a list of items discovered.  Each one will have its own icon indicating the type of item found, whether this is a file, folder, Registry keys etc.  By doubling clicking on an item you will be given more information as to its content.  In the case of Registry keys, Regedit will automatically be opened at the appropriate point.  For some reason when I first tried this feature, an error message appeared stating that Regedit could not be opened.  However this message was quickly masked by the appearance of Regedit.  I do find it less than reassuring when programs contradict themselves.

Spy Cleaner can remove selected items and save a log of scan results.  An exclusion list can be created for those items you wish to be ignored by the scanning process.  You also have the ability to create backups of specific items and restore them at a later date.

Apart from the problem with the Regedit message, Spy Cleaner carried out its tasks successfully.  It as been priced at £9.99 and is undemanding in its system requirements.  As long as you have a minimum of 233MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, 15MB of hard disk space and are running Windows 95 or later, you should be fine. 

http://www.phoenixglobalsoftware.co.uk/soap_box/spy_cleaner/index.asp