Virus or Spyware - What's the Difference?

Learn the difference between viruses and spyware how to remove them and improve your computer experience.

(PRWEB) January 13, 2006 -- Virus or Spyware - What's the Difference?

This month's article answers one of the things that still arises as a frequent question from computer users, "what's the difference between Viruses and Spyware?" Dave Fraser attempts to clarify it here.

One of the biggest slowdowns of a PC is caused by viruses, adware or spyware as it's often called. Before the user can benefit from any other PC optimisation tips or improvements they really need a system relatively free from those pests.

A virus is a piece of malicious software code written to cause some kind of damage to a computer system or network or even the Internet itself. Viruses spread, similar to their biological namesake, from one machine to another and can spread havoc wherever they go.

They are most commonly spread by sharing files with others or through email attachments where they can be set up to send themselves to all the addresses in a users email address book.

Adware is usually downloaded and installed along with some other program without the person's knowledge and unlike a virus doesn't spread by itself. Very often the computer user clicks "OK" without reading the terms and conditions and by doing so they agree to have the files installed.

An example of this is, a person sees a "free" program on offer which they think might be useful and they download it without thinking. It has been known for some rogue anti-spyware programs to install adware and the website will earn money from any ads that are clicked on by the user.

The benefit for the advertising company is that the extra files introduced are used to determine things like a person's surfing habits and the data is used to serve up popup ads or redirect the browser to a page other than the one the person wanted.

Some of the programs can be used to install keyloggers which can send back information about any passwords and bank details etc stored on the computer. Adware is not so much a security problem it is more an annoyance especially when there are ten different programs trying to show ads. The amount of computer resources that get used can slow an average system to a crawl.

Spyware is more malicious and evil intentioned and is designed to steal something. It can be downloaded by visiting the wrong types of websites or along with other files the same way as adware. Spyware can often be hard to remove as it can continually recreate itself and hide somewhere on the PC's hard drive.

Programs such as trojans can be used to allow access to hackers at a later date. From the story of the Trojan horse where the Greeks hid inside the wooden horse left as a peace offering and were wheeled in to the fort by the Trojans themselves. Then at night the Greeks crept out of the horse and opened the gates and let the enemy in. Trojans and adware, unlike viruses, don't spread by themselves.

It is always wise for someone to run more than one spyware checker as no one system finds them all. Users can never be certain they have removed every one because as new ones are constantly being created which the spyware checker has yet to be programmed to detect.

Two very popular spyware checkers are "Spybot search and destroy" and "Adaware 6.0" both of which are free.

Often a dedicated system which not only removes spyware but also prevents infections such as the one at http://www.pcsandthings.com/CounterSpy.htm

is also advisable, if only to utilize the free trial and thoroughly scan and clean a system.

Often people ask the question "doesn't my anti-virus software remove spyware"? Well the answer is, most don't and even if they did a specialist product usually works best. Computer users should also be aware of bogus spyware scanners available on-line which actually install their own spyware once they have removed their competitors.

Sometimes a person will run a free scan and it finds all sorts of nasties but they will have to sign up and pay to use the remove function of the program. It has been known that they find things that don't actually exist but are used to frighten people into believing they have lots of spyware when all they have are advertising cookies.

Cookies are small text files that websites leave on a computer so that when the person revisits the site the page can be customised for the individual or the site can use it to count returning visitors. They are harmless and most of them are useful. They can be easily removed by deleting them in a browsers tools section.

The moral of the story is, to stay protected, a person needs to be running a suitable - up to date - antivirus program and one or more Spyware checkers.

More computer tips can be gotten from Dave's website at http://www.pcsandthings.com

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