If you've used your computer for any measurable amount of time, you've probably wound up with a bunch of advertisements that show up periodically. Nobody likes being barraged with ads, so you probably want to remove them.

First, it's important to understand what causes popup advertisements. Generally they're included with free software on the internet (this is how free software stays free). If you've ever wondered why installing some program asked you to install a toolbar or something of the like, that's why. Some of the less aggressive stuff just asks you if it can install itself. Most computer users will just happily hit next until what they want is installed anyway.

Sometimes they are installed maliciously when you download music or watch videos on the computer in the form of viruses. Some people on peer to peer networks disguise adware as valid music and video files to trick people into downloading and watching them.

Whatever the reason, they're ridiculously annoying. They're even more annoying when you think about the fact that someone out there is making money off of you pulling your hair out. I'm balding just from thinking about it.

Of course, the question of the day is, "How do you remove them?" Simple, you'll need a way to identify which adware software you have on your system, and a way of removing them. Most anti-adware software packages on the web do both of those things. I firmly believe that every computer that is being used on the internet should have anti-adware software installed just to prevent these sort of things from ever gaining a foothold on those computers.