Anti-Virus VS Anti-Spyware

Your computer is a very susceptible machine. Every day you login you probably see the ads telling you what horrible things are going to slither their way into your hard drive and start eating away at years of hard work and financial records.

So, it only make sense that the first thing you want to do is find a solid piece of software that will help protect your computer against what could go wrong. But, what kind of software should you get – Anti-virus software or Anti-spyware software?

The fundamental difference between Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software solutions starts with their names. Viruses are small bits of code that attach themselves to files that come into your computer. When they are activated, either via a timer or by you opening them, they start attacking various parts of your computer, deleting data, editing registry information, or just plain slowing everything down.

Spyware is similar in how it arrives on your computer. It is usually attached to another piece of software that comes into your computer via email or a third party website and will activate when you open it. However, it doesn’t do anything openly malicious when it runs. Instead, Spyware will start digging down deep into your computer and sending information about you back to the person who created it.

This might be your email address so that you start getting more spam or it might be your financial records which can then be stolen by an identity thief. Unfortunately, the only way to know you have Spyware is to either run a software program that checks for it or to see the slower operation of your computer as a symptom of the infection.

So, what difference is there between the software that helps to protect your computer from the two malicious third party bugs? For the most part, most software these days will provide both virus and spyware protection. Updated daily or weekly with new definitions, the software will scan through your hard drive regularly to make sure nothing has infected your files.

Anti-virus software will usually integrate itself into your email and web browser as well though to provide a means of keeping such things from ever being downloaded to start with. Anti-Spyware software may do the same, but is usually more intently focused on removing and deleting any software that is already on your computer. Additionally, Anti-Spyware will often provide you with a tool that will scan websites you are about to visit and tell you if they contain malicious code or have been reported as installing spyware on your computer.

To keep your computer safe and to ensure that you never have any problem with viruses or spyware, the best option is to get a software suite that protects you against both of these problems. Anti-virus software and Anti-Spyware software together will provide a more complete, unified front against the wide array of malware that threatens to get into your files.