More on Anti-Spyware from My Favorite Technical Guru

So what am I doing up at 5 am this morning when we don't get girls until after school today? Maybe it's because I can hear the freezing rain outside and I'm wondering if there's going to be school. If there's no school, then we can get the girls any time after 8 am, when we are officially responsible for them.

And maybe it's because I'm wondering how much freezing rain we'll get, if we'll lose power, yada yada yada. Oh, to have the underground utility wires we had in Maryland! But, I'm prepared whatever comes, thanks to my handy dandy Preparedness Kit - my land line phone, my emergency radio, flashlights, water! Bring it on!

So, with the possibility of losing contact with the world, I'll write my blog since I'm awake anyway. I'm happy to report that my computer didn't freeze once yesterday, so I'm hoping it is healed. And it seems to have stopped its new whirring noises coming from the hard drive (argh - it's only two years old!).

But I digress.

My technical guru nephew Jeff wrote me yesterday to clarify some information about anti-spyware. So I'll copy his email and let him be our guest blogger today. He has owned his own computer company and is now an IT guru for Sonic.

"It’s probably worth noting that “real” anti-spyware programs typically won’t fight with each other. (Anti-virus programs will, however.) The Dell tech may have misled you slightly – if you’d only had real anti-spyware programs, they likely wouldn’t have been fighting with each other. I run two anti-spyware programs on my home computer all the time. Here’s an incomplete list of real anti-spyware programs:

AVG (also anti-virus) (This one’s free and it’s what I use on my home computer)
Adaware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Windows Defender (free download from Microsoft, built into Windows Vista – I use this one too)
Malwarebytes
SpySweeper

McAfee, Norton, TrendMicro, eSet, and most other anti-virus software vendors also have their own anti-spyware products.

What you likely clicked on is “Anti-spyware 2009” or something similar. It’s a fake (but very real-loooking) spyware removal program that claims to clean your computer but in fact does just the opposite. I’ve cleaned it off three computers thus far – two friends and one at my church.

Unfortunately, there’s no golden rule to tell you what’s safe to click on and what’s not. :("

Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff and I played around with some new beta software from Microsoft yesterday, and Jeff will guest blog about that in the future.

Hopefully I'll be able to go back to sleep now. Don't hear the freezing rain, so maybe it's a false alarm. Mmmmm...warm cozy bed!

Related posts: Eliminating Irritations and Time-Wasters, National Preparedness Month - Making a Plan, National Preparedness Month - Determining Potential Emergencies, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #1: NOAA Radio, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #2: Landline Phone, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #3 - Water, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #4 - First Aid Kit, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #5 - Additional Supplies, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #6 - Food, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #7 - Medications and Medical Supplies, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #8 - Emergency Documents, National Preparedness Month - Evacuation Plan, National Preparedness Month – Evacuation from Work, School, Daycare, and Neighborhood Communities, National Preparedness Month - Wrapping It Up: Surge Protectors, Utilities, and More