IT Support Sheffield, yorkshire

SPYWARE

"Spyware, also known as malware" – I come across many people coming to me saying “My PC seems really slow recently”. Now some of this comes down to the fact that over time, software is installed and uninstalled, leaving bits behind, and leaving fragments of its former self on the user's hard drive. This is not the only contributing factor, however. A major cause of a PC grinding to a halt is Spyware; it is software that sits in the background, often monitoring your activities online, mainly to target you for marketing purposes. Some spyware even modifies your search results so you go to their sponsored links first!

The slowness is caused by all of the resources that the spyware uses to function. A simple way to block these coming in is to purchase an Anti-Spyware package. The paid-for versions often bundle with a real-time resident shield which can block the software from being installed in the first place. Other free versions simply run a scan to detect and delete any that has already gotten into your system. Spyware, combined with the ever-present threat of viruses, can cause a very unstable, even unsafe machine to work on. I would strongly recommend purchasing some sort of protection as it can be very time consuming to clean up a badly infected machine."

SHAUN ROBINSON, SENIOR ENGINEER, NEMARK PROFESSIONAL IT SERVICES LTD.