Effectively protecting your computer against spyware by scanning and removing it immediately after detection is essential if you are a regular internet surfer. Inability to remove it will cause your user information to reach undesired quarters and might potentially damage your system. But most surfers hate to pay for removing something that they did not install in their systems. Its an absolute bother to pay to get to the same people who probably infiltrated your system in the first place. Most pop-up spyware removal software and tools are put up by the very companies which create the spyware they are asking you to remove.

If you are thinking of removing spyware without the help of a professional software company, and for free, you should take care to download and install programs that cancel out the threat of spyware from your computer for a long time. You must choose a program which will perform a two-fold protection- preventing spyware from getting installed and also detecting and removing spyware that is already infecting your computer.

Some essential tools have to be installed in your computer for the spyware program to do these tasks effectively. The first step is to install Ad-Aware or Spybot Search and Destroy, which are two of the most basic and effective software. For advanced spyware removal, HijackThis can also be considered. Once the software is installed on to your system, its better to boot your system to safe mode before running a full system scan to locate and remove spyware infecting your system. To use the advanced software HijackThis, you will need to know more than running a full system scan. You should be aware of the kind of things you could be loading for startup and what type of Browser Help Objects you will need.

Apart from these, a few simple precautions will keep your system free of spyware. After installing a spyware scanner like Ad Aware or Spybot, both of which come free, also include an anti-virus software and a firewall for your PC. And keep in mind that experts widely prefer Mozilla Firefox to any other browsers, due to its superior security settings.