You may have heard the term 'adware' on the news lately. Or, perhaps you have experienced it for yourself in the form of those advertising banners that are launched when you open some software programs or websites.

What you may not know is that some of these advertising banners also contain 'spyware', to track and report where you go on the internet and sell that information to vendors who can then try to sell YOU services that fit your displayed interests - all without your permission.

Worse, are the 'malware' characteristics of some adware programs. Malware can actually disrupt the function of your computer and the software you have loaded on that computer.

If you surf the web, read email, download programs or software online or use music sharing programs, you probably have more adware on your computer than you can imagine.

Adware programs include Hotbar, Gator, Bonzi Buddy, Slotchbar, ClipGenie, WinTools, 123Messenger, Ebates Moneymaker, and many others.

In an attempt to protect the consumer, many companies have made software available (some as shareware for no fee) to load onto your computer and detect and remove adware, spyware and malware. Major service providers like AOL are now offering their own version of adware blockers and/or adware removal and spyware removal protection and programs, free to their customers as part of their packaged services.

Programs like Microsoft's 'Windows Defender', and AOL's 'Automatic Spyware Protection' adware and spyware removal tools are designed to monitor your computer for these hidden programs, remove or block the programs and advise you when they detect a problem.

Other free anti-adware, independent adware removers and spyware removers include programs like Spybot, Spyware Blaster, CounterSpy, Max Secure, Xoft Spy, Spy Sweeper, NoAdware and Spyware Nuker. The features and protection of these programs vary so it is important to look at what they do and how easy they are to load and use before you choose one for your computer.

What you will find is that some give you broader coverage and detect more types or versions of adware or spyware, while others are just plain easier to use for a computer novice.

A program like Xoft Spy will detect a broad spectrum of threats from Trojans, and worms, to annoying pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders.

One cautionary note about adware and spyware removal programs: Some of the more ruthless Adware and Spyware programs add files to various folders in your computer directory and when the removal program identifies the threat and removes the files installed by this spyware, it sometimes misses a file or two or a directory entry. That is because the spyware designers have purposely tried to make this software as difficult as possible to remove in hopes that you will give up leave it in place.

The next time you turn on your machine after your removal program has completed the clean-up process, you will sometimes find an error message or window telling you that your computer can't find a particular file it needs to reference in order to load a program. Even worse, are the files these spyware programs may share with important Windows programs. If an anti-spyware program identifies these, it will usually ignore them and leave them on your computer, because it has been programmed to recognize the files you need to run Windows and other legitimate software applications.

Unless you are expert or skilled at the use of computers and know a bit about software, do NOT attempt to remove individual files on your own, even if you think they are related to a spyware or adware program, or you may end up with a computer that does not function.

Fortunately, there is hope! If you, or an adware or spyware program, have made a mess of your machine and you wish to 'start over', you can use the System Restore function in your Windows operating system to restore your machine to a date before the adware first corrupted your machine.

To restore your machine to a previous date, select the 'start menu' in the lower left-hand corner of your computer screen, then select 'Programs', select 'Accessories', select 'System Tools', and then 'System Restore'.

Here, you will see a calendar from which you can select a date prior to when you first started to have problems with your computer. Select one of these dates and follow the prompts to restore your machine to a previous date. Good luck!