I found from yesterday that when I do a google search for anything and click onto a website I get redirected to some other sites some of which try to download things. I hope you can advise how to stop this. Many thanks.

The Good News and the Bad News

Well, there is good news and bad news… the bad news is there is a spyware program on your computer. The good news is, we can fix it. Spyware is a kind of malware - or malicious code - that runs a destructive program on your computer. The infection that you are describing that redirects your online activity might be trying to advertise products and, as you mentioned, might try to download additional unwanted programs to your computer. These might be more malware or they might be trial versions of unsolicited programs, in either case, you don’t want them on your system.

One important thing to be aware of is that, sometimes, just going to the website that the spyware redirects you to is enough for another malware program to be uploaded to your computer, so you should stop browsing online until you have gotten rid of the infection. There are some simple steps to take to clean your system and get it back in working order.

Steps to Take

Remove Recent Downloads

1. Remove any recent downloads. If you suspect that an application, attachment, program or email that you recently downloaded or opened on your computer could be the source of the problem, try to remove it now. To remove a program or application, open the Start Menu, select the Control Panel, and then choose Add or Remove Programs. Find the name of the file that you want to remove and remove the check from the box beside it. If this is the infected file, there is a chance that it is programmed to refuse removal - let’s check a few other options to remove it.

Scan your System

1. The next thing to do is run a full system virus scan. Before you do, try to visit the website of the manufacturer of your security suite and look for updates. Keeping your antivirus program up to date helps detect new malware programs that might get access to your computer. Now run the scan. If it finds the spyware, or any other infectious code, follow the steps it gives you to contain and remove it.

Consider Alternatives

1. If the virus scan doesn’t find or can’t remove the malware, lastly, you might want to consider, if you don’t already have one, installing a spyware/adware detection program like Xoftspy or Adaware. Both are very good at finding and helping you remove spyware and adware programs that other security programs might miss or not be able to deal with. Specifically developed to find and remove this type of program, anti-spyware and adware programs are the second step, after an antivirus program, in keeping your computer safe online.

Use Caution

1. As always, be careful about what you open and allow to access your computer. Don’t open suspicious or unknown attachments or programs and don’t open links to websites from unknown email sources.

Dealing with a spyware program is important because it might be running additional instructions in the background. While the only problem you see right now is annoying redirection, it might also be gathering your personal information from your computer and making you vulnerable to identification or credit theft. It is important that you keep these programs off your computer, and with the right security software it should be painless.

How can I stop the same ad for anti-spyware from popping up over and over again?

Typically, pop up ads that advertise anti-spyware software applications are designed to goad you into purchasing the advertised product. In some cases, these pop ups indicate that spyware has been detected on the computer and the message urges the computer user to purchase, download, and install the advertised anti-spyware program immediately.

In many cases, this is a false positive and no spyware actually exists on the computer except for the application that is creating the pops. Unfortunately, if an unsuspecting individual does what the message suggests and obtains the advertised “so called” anti-spyware application, he is sure to be installing a spyware program.

In order to convince the user that the program is legitimate, the advertised anti-spyware application will mimic legitimate anti-spyware applications in an attempt to convince the user that it is legitimate. In fact, once the computer user downloads this program, the pop ups will stop. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the spyware has gone away, but rather, it has simply taken on a new appearance.

The easiest and most secure way to stop these unwanted pop ups from occurring is to run an anti-spyware application. A number of legitimate programs are available for purchase as well as for free use. Each of these programs will efficiently remove the spyware including the recurring pop up ads from the computer.
It’s important to note that any anti-spyware or anti-virus application that you install on your computer needs to be updated on a regular basis. The individuals who create spyware and viruses are constantly changing their applications in an effort to stay one step ahead of anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. Therefore, as modifications are made to various forms of malware, so too must the anti-spyware and anti-virus programs adapt themselves to these changes.

In order to rid your computer of this annoying pop up as well as any other spyware and other forms of malware, it will be necessary to download and install a legitimate program that has proven to be reliable. In fact, since you are already familiar with the filetonic web site, I suggest getting their free download for their spyware and adware scanner.

Once you click on the download box, a pop up window for the program will appear with the name of the program: XoftSpySE_RW.exe and the option to save or cancel. Save the program to your hard drive and run it immediately. The pop ups should stop appearing once you have run either or another anti-spyware program.

Additional applications that you can consider installing on your computer to rid it of spyware and adware are available. One that I can also recommend is Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. This anti-spyware program is excellent at ridding your computer of unwanted applications such as adware and spyware. If you decide to download this application, be careful that you download the free version unless you want the paid version.

Also, if you’re using Internet Explorer 7.0, make sure that the Pop-up blocker feature is enabled. Go to Tools > Pop-up Blocker and make your adjustments. 

Well, for one thing, they aren’t yummy and delicious. Internet cookies are tiny files that are designed to make your user experience a bit friendlier. For example, if you regularly visit a clothing Web site and have created your own “virtual model” for trying on clothes and seeing how they might look on you before you buy, then you wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of recreating this model, complete with measurements, weight, and personal characteristics each time you visited the site, right?

A cookie solves that for you. This tiny file resides on your computer. The next time you visit the Web site, the cookie allows all of your preferences to be displayed on the Web site. This includes personal preferences as well as data that you’ve previously supplied such as credit card information, phone numbers, and addresses. In addition, the cookie tells the Web site owner a bit about your computer such as what your IP address is, browser type, and where you came from (such as a referral source).

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Another type of cookie involves advertising. Web sites regularly feature advertisements. These advertisements place tracking cookies on your computer and are not designed with your convenience in mind. Instead, these advertisements are often part of a huge network of ads. Your single cookie with its own unique identifier is recorded any time you land on a Web site that also uses the advertising network. For example, let’s say you visit twenty web sites, fifteen of which participate in this advertising network. The advertising network knows that you visited these fifteen different websites.

So what? Over time, the advertiser builds a database of your interests based on the types of sites you visit. From this information, the advertiser makes assumptions about your Internet habits and interests and begins serving up targeted advertisements. Privacy concerns surround this type of cookie usage.

Fortunately, your Web browser has settings for accepting or rejecting cookies as well as an area where you can delete cookies. To adjust cookie settings in Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, and click on the Privacy tab. From here, you can adjust how your browser deals with cookies. To delete existing cookies, go to the General tab, Browsing History, Delete, Delete Cookies.

Internet cookies have their good and bad points. They’re great for personalized Web site experiences but terrible when used to track surfing behaviors. Set your computer’s Web browser up so that you have adequate protection against the bad cookies and yet can still enjoy returning to legitimate Web sites. Periodically delete all cookies from your computer.

I can’t open any of my programs because of a registry fix program I downloaded, hence anything now I try to download to my computer won’t open. I can’t system restore, nothing, my desktop has white background with writing all over it. Can you help please?

Unfortunately, many malicious programmers create utilities designed to trick users into downloading malware. For example, free screensavers and registry cleaners are often nothing more than lures - once a user nibbles and the program is downloaded, the malware takes over. Not knowing the name of the registry fix utility, I can’t say for sure that this happened to you but it may have.

Since downloading doesn’t appear to be an option, try http://housecall.trendmicro.com/  This is a free web-based scanning tool from Trend Micro, a well respected anti-virus and anti-spyware company. This tool should be able to detect and repair malware on your computer.

If you have Windows Vista, your computer should also have Windows Defender installed on it. This is a built-in tool that scans for malware. While Windows Defender does provide real time protection, if the malware is new, it may not have been caught upon installation. Update Windows Defender and run a full scan to see what Defender finds. Go to the Start button, type in Windows Defender, click the program icon, and then click the arrow next to the question mark. Click Check for Updates. Once updated, click on Scan > Full Scan.

Likewise, run a full scan with your existing anti-virus program. Many anti-virus programs do not provide real time detection. This means that viruses can get in and won’t be detected until a scan takes place.

If your computer comes up clean and the registry program is legitimate, it should have a “restore” feature. For example, RegCure, which is a legitimate registry cleaner from another well respected software developer (ParetoLogic Software), makes backups of the registry before making repairs. Should you ever have undesirable results after a RegCure registry fix, you can always go into the software, click on the Backup button, and restore your registry to its original condition. Check your registry fix utility for such a feature and restore your registry if available. By restoring the registry, your related problems should disappear.

Since your desktop is a mess, and you can’t use System Restore via normal methods, try going into Safe Mode and entering the command prompt for System Restore which is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Instructions for doing so are found in this Microsoft Knowledgebase article.

Does Antispyware software affect my PC Performance

The truth is, any software that you install on your computer will, to a certain extent, slow down your computer. The question is which brand of antispyware you’ve installed, how well it plays together with your existing antivirus software (you are using antivirus software, right?), and whether or not your antispyware software stays resident in your memory, scanning for threats, even when you’re not using it.

Through the years I’ve learned that some brands of antispyware software are well-known to be system resource hogs, using up valuable CPU cycles and RAM without necessarily providing you with the best protection. One particularly notable culprit is the antispyware protection that comes with Norton Internet Security, which takes up a massive amount of system resources and tends to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Others are lean and tight, using the barest minimum of resources required to stay on top of things. Both the free and paid versions of AVG’s Antispyware software run light and clean and integrate easily over preexisting antivirus software. I’m a control freak when it comes to programs running in the background, and AVG has always been my antispyware program of choice.

When it comes to keeping your computer running fast, though, what’s more important than the brand of antispyware software is the presence or lack of “real-time” protection. Antispyware programs that constantly monitor your computer and attempt to stop threats in real time tend to use more system resources. “On-demand” antispyware software, which doesn’t do anything until you remember to run a scan, tends to run much lighter and use up less of your computer’s processing power and memory.

My advice: don’t bother with “real-time” protection for antispyware programs unless you’re truly paranoid or, of course, unless you truly have something to hide. The threats posed by spyware are far less severe than those posed by viruses, and if you can remember to scan your computer for spyware once or twice a week, you should be fine - and, depending on your specs, your computer may run noticeably faster.

 If you use a computer, your actions may not be completely private. For example, if you are using a company computer at your workplace, your employer may be monitoring some, if not all, of your actions. Similarly, your personal computer may have software installed on it that records your usage. This software may be “monitoring” software or it could be “spyware.” What’s the difference?

While both monitoring software and spyware are intrusive, they aren’t the same thing. First, monitoring software is often installed with your knowledge. Employers may have clear policies covering computer and e-mail usage with full disclosure that monitoring software is in place.

Why would your employer want to monitor computer usage? One of the main reasons has to do with productivity. Employees at workstations “look” like they’re working. However, are they really working or are they checking out the latest You Tube videos? Another reason involves liability. For example, if an employee is viewing porn and co-workers are uncomfortable when passing by and seeing the images, a “hostile work environment” has been created.

At home, monitoring software is often used to keep tabs on how the children are using their computers. This type of monitoring software is typically categorized as “parental controls.” Parents can allow and block certain classes of Web sites and games as well as monitor Instant Messages and e-mail. Additional features include setting computer time limits, program usage, and download restrictions.

In addition, legitimate monitoring software could be used for spying. For example, if you have a jealous or suspicious spouse, monitoring software may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge. This type of monitoring reports back to your partner which Web sites you have visited, e-mails sent and received, Instant Messaging and chat transcripts, pictures or videos you have viewed, and other information. These programs are designed to run in the background without your knowledge. You won’t find a desktop icon or the program in your Programs list.

Spyware is another type of program that monitors computer usage. Spyware is installed without your knowledge, often as a hitchhiker to a legitimate download. Once installed, these programs collect data and transmit it to a third party. Each spyware program has its own mission ranging from sending you targeted advertisements based on your Internet history to stealing your financial information by capturing your keystrokes.

There’s not a whole lot that you can do about your employer’s monitoring software other than play by the rules and perform your job as expected. Likewise, if you suspect your spouse has installed monitoring software, you have trust and privacy issues that you will need to work out as well as a potentially dangerous situation should your partner have violent tendencies.  Of all the different types of monitoring, spyware is the easiest to deal with. A good anti-spyware program such as ParetoLogic’s XoftSpySE or Anti-Virus Plus removes existing spyware infections and prevents future ones.