I am a "Newbie" to this forum so I apologize if my questions have been asked before. I am taking Library Automation in Grad. School. I have Windows XP Professional on my home PC and I would like to know how to detect and remove spywear. Also what security settings are recommended to protect my computer? Thank You.

I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions here. My suggestions are Ad-aware 6.181 (free) Make sure you update the ref files (use webupdate) after you install and before each scan. Spywareblaster (free) This is updated frequently, also. Spywareguard (free) Update this, also. This link will give you some tips on making IE and OE more secure. Good luck!

To detect and remove spyware this first thing I would suggest doing is a full system scan. First I would delete the cookies and temporary files from Internet Explorer. For doing this, right click on the Internet Explorer icon that is on the desktop. Choose Properties and it will bring up a new window. Click the button that says Delete Cookies, then after that click on the button next to it that says Delete Files. Then I would download the program Ad-aware, which is a program by lavasoft(www.lavasoftusa.com). After installing check for any updates to the program through the updates option. Once that’s done run the scan. Then when it’s finished it will prompt you on what to do next. Either it will show the files it found to be potentially harmful, otherwise it will let you know that nothing was found. Next, I would download and install the program Spybot Search & Destroy. This can be skipped, but is a good form of verification to make sure that Ad-aware didn’t miss any files or programs. Finally once it’s determined that the system is clean you can adjust certain system settings to lessen the chance of any more spyware invading your system. Some of the settings that are worth checking out or adjusting are: Settings in Internet Options of Internet Explorer(privacy tab, security tab, and the advanced tab). Those three tabs have different settings you can adjust. In the Security tab you can adjust the levels on the settings to either a default (High, Medium, Low), or a Custom Level. This controls how Internet Explorer reacts to things such as Active X controls. The Privacy tab controls how cookies are handled. Again either a default setting or custom level can be picked. In the Advanced tab there are a series of check boxes to control things such as Install on Demand or other kinds of notifications. Also if using Windows 2000 or above check out Services that are in Computer Management within the Control Panel. To open this up, click on the Start button on the taskbar, go to Settings, then select Control Panel from the list that appears to the side of Settings. This will bring up the Control Panel window and in their double click on Administrative Tools. Within Administrative Tools double click on Services. This will bring up a window with a list of the services that you can enable and disable. One service worth disabling is the Messenger service.