PC Security Doctor

The moment you see Pop-Up Advertisement on your web browser, you need to be very careful. These pop-ups can be an entry point for spyware. Ads that say things like “Viruses detected on your PC. Click to install anti-virus automatically” can be fake messages designed to get you to install spyware or adware.

Another type of pop-up ad, appearing when you are not even using the internet are a sign of adware installed on your computer. These pop-up ads on your desktop appear randomly and are hard to understand where they come from.

The site you visit will indicate whether the pop-up is a spyware or adware. Many major sites have many pop-ups, but these pop-ups are genuine. Newspaper sites like New York Times, Washington Post and others use pop-up ads to advertise. However, if you are visiting sites like hacking or pornography sites and pop-ups ads appear on your desktop, this could be spyware or adware.

If you are fond of browsing and want to buy thing online, it becomes necessary for you browse as many sites as possible to do a thorough search for the product you want. Even after you have closed those web sites you may find advertisement of products. This can be due to spyware or adware.

The pop-up ads which seems to be suspicious are the ones that appear even you’re offline.  Many pop-up ads open when you visit a web site and if the web site is legitimate then the advertiser is also legitimate as well as well-known. If the advertisement doesn’t seem to match the content then it could be an adware or spyware parasite.

Pop-up ads that are hazardous for your computer are designed to look like legitimate advertisements. If the contents of the advertisement seem strange, or if you are getting pop-up ads when you are not even surfing the Internet, then it is in all probability is adware.

Some other symptoms include:

• If your computer behaves unexpectedly or
• your CD drives open and shut randomly or
• programs open and close unexpectedly or
• your hard drive is continually make a working noise even when you aren’t using the computer or
• software or programs do not start when you expect them to start or
• there is an unknown icon in your desktop or
• some parts of programs do not work properly or
• the settings in your web browser change or
• when you start your computer the internet browser opens to display web site advertisements.

All these may be signs that you have an infected computer. It is recommended to run an anti-spyware scan immediately.