25 May 09 Targetad Displays Unwanted Ads

TargetAD is an adware program first discovered in July of 2006. It disguises itself as a Browser Helper Object, also known as a BHO. It causes Internet Explorer to generate pop up advertising.

TargetAD has a high risk for infection. When installed, it downloads updates from www.targetad.net. Not only does it download updates for its central program, but it can download updates for its various components.

The TargetAD website is not recognized as an infected website by many spyware protection programs. It even has a high ranking on Google. It claims to have "The Quality Discount Products as a Gift from the Gods!!" The price you pay for such discounts is altogether too high.

TargetAD causes Microsoft Internet Explorer to generate new browser windows displaying the affiliated sites of its home page. Many of these pop ups are easily noticeable as being "fishy," since they display gibberish and are often in foreign languages that don't translate into English. Some of the affiliated web sites for TargetAD include www.newerjob.com, www.a.keyrun.com, www.chcb.com.cn and www.51sgfy.com.

There is a bit of a question about being able to legitimately remove TargetAD from your computer. There is an automatically signed licensing agreement which is often tied to the EULA for whatever freeware program you downloaded. It often comes in a bundle with freeware, which may be unusable if TargetAD is removed.

However, it is worth not being able to use a certain program when there are hundreds of others like it. Considering the resources TargetAD consumes and the annoyance the pop ups cause, one freeware program out of many isn't worth keeping for all the trouble.

Many people are tempted to try manually removing TargetAD and other adware programs. This is highly discouraged, because of the complexity of such an operation. Online removal instructions are often incorrect or incomplete. Also, many of the files associated with TargetAD have similar names to legitimate files. Removing Symantec.exe when you mean to remove Symentec.exe can spell disaster for your Norton Antivirus.

To remove TargetAD, it's just better to use an antispyware program that is capable of removing it. A 100% removal guarantee is the only sure way.

About the Author:

Carl runs a site devoted to helping you rid your computer from all sorts of spyware and malware at http://www.spyzooka.com/