There are many adware removal programs on the Internet; a search performed on one of the more popular software search engines using the keywords "Adware Remover" found about 180 matches. The results, however, vary from one another in terms of focus and function. Most of the titles either had adware by itself or adware and spyware together, while other titles had the words firewall, guard, and privacy.

Adware and spyware removers are generally programs that scan the computer system for adware, spyware, malware, or programs that are classified as "Pests," and remove them from the system. Although most anti-virus software are also able to detect, and to an extent, remove adware, spyware, Trojan horses, bots, keyloggers, and other malicious software, it should be noted that anti-spyware companies are dedicated and focused on dealing with "Pests," not viruses. This makes anti-spyware programs a better choice for removing adware.

Personal firewalls do not really remove adware from the system but are able to help prevent an adware program from reactivating itself after it is "removed" by an anti-spyware program. Most adware use resuscitators to ensure that it remains active in the system no matter how many attempts are made to delete it. This is made possible through resuscitators by deploying another program that will attempt to download another copy of the adware into a system. By using personal firewalls, a computer user can assign which programs may or may not access the Internet, therefore making it impossible for resuscitators to perform their tasks.

There are also Internet security programs that allow users to set rules for Internet usage on a system. Some examples of their features are blocking harmful websites, restricting Internet access time, and defining the types of files that may be downloaded into the system.

While there are a lot of programs designed to remove adware from a computer system, there are also a lot of programs that focus on prevention. No matter how good anti-spyware software may be, there are still a lot of adware that cannot be automatically removed from the system, thus requiring the user to perform manual steps involving editing the system registry to get rid of adware.