worse is spyware,which can range from harmless but invasive programs that
report information about your Internet activities back to a central site; this
sort of spyware is used to learn about your interests and proclivities so that
advertisers can target their pitches directly to you. The evil twin to spyware
is a program that tracks all of your keystrokes and mouse clicks with the aim
of discovering — and misusing — your passwords, credit card numbers, and
banking information.If you can spot junk, adware, or spyware in the system tray or the Task
Manager’s Processes tab, you should be able to remove them using the meth-
ods I’ve already outlined in this chapter: using the Control Panel’s Add or
Remove Programs utility or right-clicking the icon and choosing Remove or
Uninstall from the submenu.Many background applications allow you to shut down or exit the program
by right-clicking them, but this does not stop the program from reappearing
the next time you start the computer. Even more annoying: You may be able
to tell the program not to display, but it is still there, doing its thing. You have
to remove the program to truly be rid of it.Searching and Destroying Spyware and Adware......................................
Thus far I’ve been talking about ways to deal with programs that are well
behaved and follow the rules. I wish I could stop right here. It would save a
lot of headaches and trouble. Alas, though, there are two types of pain in the
electronic neck:Overly zealous salespeople and tracking companies constantly seeking
ways to put their messages onto your screen and to find ways to customize
their intrusions. If they can discover that you are a male between the ages
of 25 and 40 and interested in fast cars and rock music, they can sell that
information to an advertiser who is looking to target you. If they can deter-
mine that your laptop’s primary user is a young woman who religiously
shops for shoes and self-help books, they can customize a different set of
annoying pop-up messages. This class of program is called adware.More malicious and possibly dangerous to your privacy and finances:
pieces of code that spy on your activities. The spyware also sometimes
attempt to poke around on your hard drive in search of account num-
bers, passwords, and other personal information.Chapter 18: Adding or Removing Software, for Better or for Worse 285