Ziay!

JOHN DAS

like looking into the msconfig and system registry

JimmyR.com

find where it installs itself, then go to that folder or the place in the registry and delete it (regedit)

I dont recommend it

It's best to scan with several virus/spyware programs. There's several online ones free that you can use. I like panda and bitdefender best because they've found the most viruses. Adaware is best for removing spyware.
http://www.jimmyr.com/security.php

Teddy

if you know what is spyware or adware you can just delete but if you don't you must use adware/spyware scanner

Wildcat0695

I would suggest using a program and backing up all of your files off of the computer using DVD or CD. If you mess up the registry you could render the operating system useless.

Spybot Search and Destroy can remove things from teh registry without killing the operating system. Doing so on your own is at your own risk.

rahidz2003

Well, try using a search engine for the particular spyware name (any file in particular?) , and see what files and registry entries it installed. Then try to stop the processes, delete those files, and remove the registry entries. But I wouldn't do this without making some sort of a backup, and even then, using a spyware scanner is better.

Also, there's a cool tool called HijackThis, which gives you a list of startups, registry entries, etc, then you can remove the ones which are suspicious.

Why would you want to do it manually, though? There are tons of free and useful programs (Ad-Aware, Spybot, Microsoft Anti-Spyware) that'll do it for you