Spyware secretly intrudes your system and starts trading your personal information with malicious sources. Spyware downloads itself to your computer as a hidden component, usually with downloaded freeware or shareware programs. It may secretly start collecting your personal information including your password details, e-mail addresses, and credit card numbers. This information can be then shared with various sources on the Internet. A spyware program can also alter the settings of your computer and introduce numerous embedded keys in the registry of your computer.

Besides spyware, there also exist many advertising-supported (adware) software programs, which deliver undesired pop-ads to your Windows computer. These programs may also function like spyware, and start passing on your personal information to external sources.

Symptoms of Spyware Problems

You are likely to have spyware problems on your computer, if you observe that:

• Your browser settings have changed, and you may open a site, which you have never wanted to.
• Certain unknown toolbars, links, and favorite links get installed in the Web browser.
• Default home page of your Internet browser, or your default search program settings have changed.
• You are automatically taken to affiliate websites, usually when you enter an incorrect URL in the address bar.
• There is an increase in the number of pop-up messages or ads on the system, even when no web browser is open on the computer.
• The performance of your system is severely affected.

Affects of Spyware On the System and the Registry

A spyware program is usually created to affect your system in two ways. First, it regularly scans your system and keeps collecting your personal information. In the process, it may use a lot of system resources and eventually reduce the speed of your PC. Secondly, it may severely affect the registry of your computer by adding unnecessary files and entries. This is likely to increase the size of your registry and cause spyware registry problems. Remember, spyware may also insert certain embedded keys within the computer's registry. Most of these keys are non-removable and are likely to evade most of the simple cleaning activities.

Method to Prevent Spyware Problems

The good news is that you can always prevent spyware attacks on your computer by regularly scanning the registry of your system. This can be done by regularly running anti-spyware scans on the system. Spyware removal software allows you to prevent malicious adware and spyware programs from intruding your Windows computer and stealing your information. To do this, you need to enable the real time protection feature of your anti-spyware tool. You can also use these programs to adequately scan your computer and remove unwanted spyware from your system. To ensure that your system is protected against the latest spyware, you must keep you anti-spyware tool updated with the latest definitions.

In addition to spyware removal tools, you may also use an effective registry cleaner software to scan the registry of your computer. Using a good registry cleaner tool, you can easily remove the embedded spyware registry keys and maintain a healthy and error-free Windows registry.