What is Adware?

The word Adware is short for Advertising-Supported Software. This term describes any software which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer, after the software has been installed on it.

It is usually included with other software which one can download from the Internet - especially software that you can download for "free". The price you pay is having the adware installed on your computer. When you run the program that you downloaded for "free" from the Internet, it will usually automatically cause adds to pop up on your screen thereafter.

Adware software is integrated into, or combined with, another program. The person or company who is making the free program available is usually paid for including adware in his program. This is one of the ways that some programmers make a living or cover the cost of writing "free" programs.