The first sign of a spyware infestation is the PC starts misbehaving - you can't shutdown certain programs, the machine is sending data over the internet even when you aren't browsing and programs that have never asked to access the internet before suddenly try to go online.
You believe spyware has got onto your machine.
The first step is to
detect spyware and obviously the next step is to use
spyware remover software to get rid of it.
The problem is spyware has evolved considerably over the last few years. It used to trick users into clicking "OK" on a dialog box before malicious code could be installed. Now it exploits security loopholes in browsers to install silently (often called a "drive-by" download) and worse yet, it uses rootkit technology to conceal its presence from both the operating system and the software used to remove spyware.
The plain truth is spyware tools haven't kept up with the state of the art in spyware technology that allows spyware, trojans and other malware to remain hidden on your PC.
Spyware killers can't eliminate spyware that they can't find. Rootkits can hide even old spyware from the best spyware checker. There are a handful of tools such as rootkit revealer, process explorer, autoruns and hijackthis that allow a knowledgeable person to locate and remove
spyware manually but they are definitely not for the beginner.
These programs will allow you to really mess up your computer, if you don't know exactly what you are doing.
Owning a scalpel doesn't make you a surgeon.
I'm not going to preach about taking precautions and backing up your machine and all the other sanctimonious stuff you've heard.
At this point I'm going to make several assumptions:-
* you have (or suspect you have)
spyware on your machine.
* you don't have a complete backup that you can instantly restore to make the problem disappear
* you're a normal human being, not a technically-obsessed computer security freak
* you are using a windows PC, not mac or linux