Contrary to most viruses Spywares actually make an effort not to be observed. Since they won’t cause obvious harm such as deleting important files or shutting down your computer, they can thrive in your PC for years without you noticing, sending out massive amounts of information about all your online habits.

At a first glance, you might find this annoying but essentially harmless. Why not let companies send me promotional material about things I am actually interested in? Spyware is however far from harmless, since infiltration by Spyware not only let companies know about your latest online search, but also much more private matters such as credit card details, online purchases of medicine and your private e-mail correspondence with family, friends and business partners. There are even examples of how this massive gathering of personal information has led to an overall loss of privacy and stolen identities. In computerized world of today it is not hard to imagine amount of damage and personal suffering fraudulent use of a persons’ identity can cause.

It is obvious to anyone that we must start combating Spyware programs, but best way of doing this is not to panic and pull plug on your PC, never go online again and keep five feet away from all Freeware. There is a much better solution: http://www.supportcave.com

Now having said all of that, we all know that sometimes you just walk into same room computer is in and a blue screen can appear telling us that we have done something illegal. After getting one of these messages, you might want to do what I always do. That is lock doors so computer police can not get in and arrest me for whatever it was that I was not supposed to have done. If you do same thing, you might not want to mention it to anyone outside your family. I have found that there are people out there that do not believe in computer police, (poor lost souls).

It is time now to get to good part. Anytime you download something off internet or download something a friend or relative has sent you, always run it through your antivirus program before you make installation. If you do not have a antivirus program on your computer you should really get one. Without one you have no way of knowing if someone has sent you a virus and no way of knowing if you are sending it to someone else. Here are two good ones that are free for personal use. You can find them here "http://www.asw.cz/index.html" and "http://www.grisoft.com" Do not include quotes when entering these addresses into your address bar. The bottom line is this, your computer can be a good friend and lots of fun if you know how to treat it. A good way to keep your computer running good is to perform maintenance on a regular basis. Maybe in my next article I will cover computer maintenance. See Ya, keep it on road.