I am going high tech here....just kidding.But today's post has a lot to do with that :technology.Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance said something about people using gadgets and yet hating them subconsciuosly in a way to loath taking care of them.Same goes for computers.We use it to do so many things but never take the time to maintain it in good working condition.Today's topic is then about what infects almost every computer connected to the net:spyware.

I first came across the term in the dying days of Audiogalaxy in cnet's download section.I was shocked to learn that that great mp3 sharing program came bundled with lots of spyware that one had no choice to exclude.So I went for the best and most popular spyware destroyer in the market..Ad-aware.Now yesterday I came across a program that made Ad-aware look like a toy in comparison.

Spybot,as with all good things in life is free and realtively new in the market(released March 21st) but it's already immensely poplular.Its not difficult to see why.It discovered stuff in my computer undetected by Ad-Aware and whats more increased my system resources from 60-80%!! Personally I dont have much against spyware but the thing is they suck your system power and bandwidth and makes the computer literally crawl.What makes Spybot unique is that you can block the servers of many of the programs from accessing your computer.And it has lots of settings in its advanced mode covering everything there's to cover.A word of caution though ,if you're a newbie in the world of spyware and can't imagine what or where registry keys are , I suggest you start with Ad-aware first.It's simple and direct and found 120(yep!!) malicious components on the first run.

Spy Sweeper is good too but its free to try whatever that means ;) They have regular updates ,like Spybot, which Ad- aware now sorely lacks.Spy sweeper found stuff missed by Ad-aware and its very simple and basic.Once you get the hang of these two you will be confident to have a go at Spybot.What's good and maybe bad about Spybot is that it's a one man show by a German dude,Patrick.Thoough its free now,I guess its a matter of time before someone buys him out,though he vehemently denies he will ever make the program paid.

When I first used Spybot ,it got stuck when it got to 2957 of 5835 of C2.lop. I ran the scan for 8-10 times with the same result."Insanity is doing the same thing again again and expecting different results".Anyway I visited Patrick's website and had a dekho at the FAQs, as a last resort...wow my prob was listed.Very surprised coz some users in cnet had complained about the same prob .Obviously they had just whined and failed to check.Wonder if they were mallus?

Before anyone gets excited and go on a deleting spree with Spybot ,a word of caution.This is a very powerful program and can wreck havoc on your system if used injudiciously.Be very very careful ,otherwise your system will be screwed for life.Don't believe me??Read these user opinions. As with any product ,first let me suggest you just observe it...meaning before you get down to any serious deleting and killing files and cookies just "look around" and get a feel of it.And read the help file/faq though it may not make sense at first.Oh ,one more thing, as lot of users pointed out in cnet, pop up windows are almost non existent now,even on sites where they used to come.And if any spyware tries to load ,I get a warning and a choice what to do with the buster.

Well ,so far so good.If anything major(like reboot,blue screen of death,etc) happens I will keep you guys posted :)