Jaymee - spyware and adware are processes added to your machine, usually
by websites you visit, usually without your knowledge or permission.
They are not necessarily malicious, but enable a distant site to track
your activity on the web, which is a violation of your privacy but is
useful to distant marketeers. They also usurp your bandwidth.
You can scan your system and eliminate both kinds of intruders with
these two free tools and a few others like them; these are two in common
use:
"Spybot Search and Destroy"
"Ad-Aware 6"
Google will find both download sites for these cleaning tools. Beware of
similarly-named software; some are infectors themselves. Both these
tools are regularly updated; checking for updates is just a click on
their windows when you run them. Every few days is a good plan.
