It is a harsh truth that there are people out there who are trying to cause damage to our computers or simply use them for their own purposes without our knowledge. Because of such people, it has become necessary to arm ourselves with a variety of programs to protect our computers from viruses, spyware, and whatever else may be created. While there are certainly many good commercial programs to choose from, it can get rather expensive once you get roped in to the yearly license fees and product upgrades that software companies use to remain profitable.

Fortunately, some companies and individuals have created free versions of many programs that although are not as robust, certainly get the job for the typical user. Here are my Microsoft Windows-based recommendations.

Free Spyware Removal Recommendations

There's no question that the Internet is the great enabler. Unfortunately, it enables spyware to spread too. Spyware is created to do different things from using your computer to send large numbers of e-mails (spam) to transmitting data about your activities as you surf the web. There are a few free anti-spyware products worth downloading:

• Lavasoft Ad-Aware
• Spybot Search and Destroy
• CWShredder
• HijackThis (for the advanced user)