If you are one of the 90% of Internet users that are infected with spyware and you are looking for advice on what the best spyware removal tool is, here are 3 secrets to finding and selecting the most effective and proven spyware remover.

1. Spyware Database - make sure that the antispyware software you choose scans your computer against a spyware database. This basically means that every file on your computer is compared to a database of known spyware files to determine if that file is spyware or not. Most free spyware removal tools do not use a spyware database but rather they depend on observation of your files and registry to look for strange or unknown files. This can lead to false positives and the antispyware software might also end up deleting a legitimate file. You'll also want to check the size of the database that the software uses with obviously the larger databases being the ones that will detect and clean the most spyware.

2. Real Time Protection - unfortunately most Internet users wait until after they already have an infection before looking for an antispyware program that can clean it. However, what is as important, if not more important is finding a program that scans your computer in real time. In other words, the software runs continuously in the background while your computer is on and it constantly checks the files and websites that you access for spyware. This is far superior to simple detection and removal because it will stop spyware before it has a chance to infect your computer.

3. Reputation - this is something that can be overlooked but is vital when looking for the best spyware removal tool. There are a large number of rogue antispyware programs out there which disguise themselves as being legitimate, but which actually further infect your computer. So you'll want to do research on whatever software and company you are looking at to ensure that they have a solid reputation within the industry and also check to see if the company has won any awards or received recognition for their product as many technical publications hand out "best of" software awards each year.

Unfortunately, spyware has become a common occurrence for a large majority of Internet users, but if you follow these 3 simple rules when researching the best spyware removers, you'll stand a much better chance of finding a proven and effective spyware removal tool that will keep your computer clean for years to come.