Howdy and hello! Welcome to another fun filled edition of The Weekly Geek!

Watch out, and don’t believe those ads.

I still cannot understand why some people take ads at face value, especially internet pop-up ads. Even if you intentionally visit a site and a pop up alert “warns” you of spyware, dirty pictures or anything else that is supposedly on your computer, you should not jump to conclusions or your pocket book.

In this edition of The Weekly Geek, I want to go over some crap-ware. You might have heard of Spyware and malware but crap-ware is my term for programs that claim to solve an issue and in reality cause the same or more issues.

The most common forms of crap-ware are anti-spyware programs. Most of those I will discuss here were bought or used because of a pop-up ad going to a computer. I have seen these and others on multiple PC’s over the recent years.

Please note that each of these programs earned the crap-ware award through various means. Before we begin, there are always those who want to read the last page first.

My personal recommendations are for “Ewido (Now owned by AVG) and A – Squared . Their pay for versions constantly run in the background and prevent infections in the first place. Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard are two very good additional tools and are free (Spyware Blaster has a pay for version that automatically updates). Spybot Search and Destroy is a good tool when used after the fact, I would greatly recommend using its HOST file application under the Advanced user area.

Don’t forget the other tools needed to secure your computer, a software firewall, a great anti-virus, a router with the hardware firewall activated and a healthy dose of paranoia.

Next week I will go over some of the recent crap-ware cleanups I have had to perform. I will also give you some links to a few excellent sites dedicated to eliminating the spyware and malware epidemic and with a little luck I will perform some crap-ware tests this coming week on a fresh system.

In the meantime, visit Spyware Warrior to see a great list of crap-ware.

Until we meet again, have a virus and crap-ware free week!