Jeezo! What on earth were you doing! I thought you hadn't installed anything new? Spyware needs to be installed you know.........

Oh well, definitely explains it!

installing spyware? You can get spyware and adware from visiting websites. thats how most people get it.

It still has to be installed...

Unless you're using firefox in its default setup of course in which case i'm not surprised!

Even the though, you *should* still have to actually run the setup program it downloads or nothing will happen. Spyware and Adware are not viruses, people have to actively install them, its just that often they are "mixed in" with other programs.

For example Firefox and Google, Adobe and Yahoo, etc etc..

Just be careful and stay away from shareware and freeware sites and you should have no problems.