Best Spyware & Adware Removers

• Ad-aware is by far the most popular program to help you remove spyware from your computer. It was created by Lavasoft. Ad-aware has a free version of their program that works almost as well as their paid version. The main problem with Ad-aware is that it doesn't give you the greatest information on the programs that it finds on your computer, which can make it difficult to make the decision to remove them. Otherwise the program is excellent and highly rated by users. Ad-aware has been downloaded by more than 165 million users and has 5 stars from CNET's Editors.

• Spy Sweeper is one of the best anti-spyware programs on the market. It has received awards from PC Magazine, Smart Computing and PC Word and 5 stars from CNET's Editors. Spy Sweeper not only detects and removes spyware, but also helps you block spyware installations in the future. It has over 8 million downloads.

• Spybot Search & Destroy is a completely free program by PepiMK Software. Spybot has had more than 67 million downloads and also has 5 stars from CNET's Editors. It not only identifies the adware applications embedded on your PC, it also spots Trojan horses, dialers (applications that use ActiveX to dial pay per minute telephone numbers), security leaks within Microsoft's Internet Explorer, & other malicious behavior on your PC.

Other Spyware Removers

• Spyware Doctor detects and removes spyware, adware, Trojan horses, keyloggers and other tracking threats from your PC. It is reasonably popular with over 19 million downloads and had 5 stars from CNET's Editors.

• McAfee has spyware and adware removers in their Internet Security Suite. This can be an expensive program, but it does offers more than many of the other paid spyware removers.

• Diet K removes spyware and blocks pop-ups. It's pretty popular program with over 4 million downloads and it's completely free.

• HijackThis is a new spyware program that seems to be getting more popular with almost 1.5 million downloads. It's free, has very good customer feedback and 4 stars from CNET's Editors.

• SpyHunter removes 190 types of adware, but has very poor customer feedback. We would not recommend using this piece of software, especially given how many other good spyware removing software is out there.

• Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware is fairly new anti spyware program that has a very good CNET rating. It is very easy to use and seems to be fairly effective.

• SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed. SpywareBlaster blocks the installation of spyware ActiveX controls in its database, and can even prevent them from running if they are installed. The program has over 6 million download already, is highly rated by users of the program and has 4 stars from CNET's Editors.