What is Adware?

Published on: February 26th, 2015

Adware is the combination of the words Ad and software making up the word.   It is software that delivers ads to you.   It is often the cause of Pop-up ads particularly ones that come up even without browsing the internet. It can also Hijack your browsers home page and search engine forcing their ads to come up. They can deliver “relevant ad content” buy using internet cookies stored on your computer or information gathered by its sister program spyware. Unlike viruses adware often operates in kind of a legal grey area.   It is typically included with something else that you choose to install on your computer, usually a “free” program (a free Screensaver or rebate finder, or utility to make your computer faster).  It also typically tells you in that licensing agreement that you clicked “agree” on without reading that the Adware is included in exchange for your use of that “free program”.   Adware can also include Trojan downloader program – that is programs that can download other programs without your knowledge and acceptance.