Spyware is a type of malware that attempts to steal information from you without your knowledge or consent. It can masquerade as legitimate software or work behind the scenes to track web browsing data or monitor keystrokes to collect passwords.

After hours of searching, testing, and working through their differences, I have compiled this list of free tools that can scan your hard drive, flash drive, external hard drive, etc. to remove spyware. Some only work if you initiate the scan manually. Others, however, continuously monitor your computer to ensure that spyware cannot change your computer or monitor your information.

SUPERAntiSpyware should be one of your first choices when it comes to removing spyware that is already on your computer. It is updated frequently, installs and scans quickly, and gives you full control over what is scanned.

It can check ZIP files, skip unknown file types (for a faster scan), ignore large files, and skip non-executable files (so that only EXEs and similar file types are scanned).