Windows Defender

Not many people know that some types of spyware or malware are even more dangerous than regular viruses, as they are able to change your browser's home page and even allow hackers to take over your computer and intercept your passwords.

In order to avoid this, you will need to install an anti-spyware application which can detect and remove spyware before it can do any harm. Fortunately, Windows users can use the Windows Defender application, which comes with the operating system. By default, Windows Defender runs as a service and continuously monitors your hard disk for potential spyware.

Still, in order to make sure that the spyware database is always up to date, you should activate the Windows Update feature. In order to manually scan for spyware using this application, you can launch it from the Program Files folder. When running the program, the user will be able to customize the scanning process and choose several scanning methods, like a quick or full one, and even customize it, by choosing what folder or partition should be scanned for spyware. Unfortunately, there is no context menu option for scanning a specific folder.

By accessing the options section, the user will be able to customize the automatic scanning feature, by choosing a time and date when this should be performed, but also enable or disable the real-time protection or choose an action to be performed when spyware is detected.

Furthermore, the user can exclude certain folders or file types from the scan, thus making the scanning process much faster.