Every year, advertising in computer programs is becoming more popular. A separate term was coined for its definition - “adware”. What it is?
In fact, this is a special software that is installed directly on the user's computer and displays advertisements.
There are online and offline adware programs. What does it mean?
Adware from the point of view of developers
First, let’s try to figure out why software developers generally implement advertisements in their products , and how this happens.
Features of online-adware
In this case, the advertisement is constantly pumped from some external Internet source. By the principle of operation, such programs are partly reminiscent of ordinary
banners on websites. Given that advertising is only possible with an Internet connection, this scheme is used, as a rule, on those programs that are oriented to work on the network.
Specialized ad networks (for example, Soft.Tbn.Ru) offer adware integration services for regular programs. From the organizers, programmers participating in the network receive a special component SoftTBN.dll, and then integrate it into their programs.
When these programs are launched by users, banners are downloaded from the central database and displayed in the interface. If there is no Internet connection, those banners that were previously accumulated by the program are displayed.
However, will such adware be effective? After all, firstly, the presence in the program of banners almost always annoys users. Secondly, embedding modules for advertising increases the number of errors in the program code. In fact, the image of the program suffers, and people begin to look for alternative options, enriching the competitors of the developers.
Features offline-adware
In turn, offline-adware programs do not access external sources for displaying ads. The entire set of banners is initially present in the program code and does not change during the entire period of its use. Access to the Internet occurs only when the user clicks on the ad.
The behavior of offline-adware is completely under the control of developers, which significantly reduces the number of errors during operation. In addition, programmers can control exactly which ads will be displayed in the program interface - as a rule, they are interesting to users of the program and do not carry malicious information. Hacking the code of such programs is much more difficult.
The only drawback for developers, perhaps, is the limited set of banners. However, the developers compensate for this shortcoming by regularly releasing new versions of the program.
If you encounter an adware virus ...
Tired of the hell out of advertising popping up in the useful and necessary programs that you use?
How to remove adware virus ? The information described above shows that adware advertising is not a separate malicious program, but a component of other software. That is, most modern antiviruses believe that this is a necessary file for the regular program to work.
That is why there are special utilities designed to remove adware. What kind of programs are these? The most popular and effective products at the moment are:
- Ad-Adware
- Spybot - Search & Destroy;
- Spyware Terminator
- AVZ;
- a-squared Free.
These programs automatically detect and delete files responsible for advertising. At the same time, the program’s functionality itself does not suffer - you continue to use it, but don’t see annoying banners.
In general, like any other advertisement, adware has its advantages. What does it mean? Typically, ads are targeted — that is, users only see ads that might really interest them. So, before deleting adware files, take a look at the advertisement again: maybe you will find exactly what you need?