The only demon indigenous to internet computing I loathe more than spam are pop-up windows. And, I'm sure, we all don't take too kindly to personal information, from passwords to browsing history, surreptitiously nicked from us, to be sold to the highest bidder in quarters too dark to contemplate - a phenomenon known otherwise as "spyware."
Worry no more! PC Magazine recently reviewed a slew of programs dedicated to the identification and elimination of spyware, pop-ups and other niggling little monsters that embed themselves in your registry and throw five offers for the unambiguously annoying and undesirable X-10 pervert security camera upon the instant Google loads up.
Surprisingly - or perhaps not surprisingly, one always wonders if "prevention" companies don't hedge their bets between harassed consumer and insidious marketeer - a good portion of the spy-killers produced either impaired or worthless results (even those with both purchase and subscription fees). It is of genuine distinction, however, that the Editor's Choice happened to be Spybot Search & Destroy, a shareware program cast from the forge of a philanthropic, German silicon wizard Patrick Kolla. It's easy to use, knife-edge succinct and deadly efficient; legitimate programs, such as auto-updaters for applications, can be separated from a compiled blacklist while everything else is pushed into the furnaces of bad-code hell. Don't want the gremlins to sneak back in? Weekly or bi-weekly updates have to this point issued warrants for 247 different programs that scuttle towards computers like deer ticks; with SS&D, Internet Explorer is able to block them at all times during web-skirting. You can even request a message to be sent every time one of the goblins gets swatted away.
After loading and executing the program, I have yet to see a pop-up window boil up from where it shouldn't have. Even if I didn't know the first thing about registries or discerning one automated beacon from another, SS&D could help me along with poignant descriptions - complete with wry, Continental European sarcasm. For the computer-intuitive, this gem is literally a breeze. It's powerful, reliable and free. At the end of every session, feel free to give into the ineludible urge to drop your hard-earned cash into Kolla's deserving tip jar.