Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies.
Here are some excellent free spyware removers:Ad-Aware -
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/Spybot -
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=downloadSpywareBlaster -
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.htmlSpywareGuard -
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.htmlDon't know what is safe to delete? Check out this list:Listing of Class Identifiers (CLSIDs) for Application Toolbars:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/toolbars/List of all known Browser Helper Objects:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/bhos/Here is another excellent site to get information on Spyware/Parasites:http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/