Your PC is a very vulnerable machine. Every day when you log online, chances are you see the ads warning you what horrible things are going to sneak their way into your hard drive, destroy years of hard work, and email your credit card numbers to a criminal mob. So, it seems only sensible that the very first thing you want to do is find a reliable software package to help protect your computer against what everything that could wrong. But, what kind of software should you get? Do you need Anti-virus software or Anti-spyware software or both?

To answer that question, let’s first take a look at what anti-virus and anti-spyware programs protect your PC against. A virus is a small file that can attach itself to your hard drive. Viruses attack your computer surreptitiously from the Internet. When click on their file, or when a “timer” goes off, they launch their attacks. Virus can delete your data. They can edit your registry. Or they can slow everything to a crawl.

Spyware also attaches to your computer from the World Wide Web. Malware programmers, and also some software package programmers, attach spyware to another piece of software. Spyware can come into your PC through email or off a third party website, but it can also be part of a software package you purchase for a legitimate purchase. Many software companies tell you in the fine print of the user agreement that they “bug” your computer to tell them how you are using their program. Like a virus, spyware will activate when you open it. However, spyware is not obviously harmful. Instead, the spyware program will start digging into your files and sending information about your computer and about your online activities to the person who created it. Sometimes spyware just goes after your email address. First thing you know, your inbox is full of spam. Or spyware might want your financial records, or your online and real-life identity. The only way you can know for sure whether you have spyware on your PC is running a detection program, but chances are you have spyware if your computer runs slow.

So, what’s the difference between anti-spyware and anti-virus software? Well, most of the time, your computer protection these days provides both. Checking for new spyware and virus definitions every week, your protection software will scan your hard drive regularly to make sure it is not infected.

Anti-virus programs will usually integrate themselves into your email and web browser. This keeps malicious programs from ever infecting your computer in the first place. Anti-spyware software may perform the same function, but it is usually more from removing files that have already infected your computer. Anti-spyware will often provide you with a tool that will scan websites you are about to visit. It will stop you from logging on and tell you they contain malicious code or have been reported as installing spyware on other computers, or if the anti-spyware designer has safety concerns about the site.

To keep your computer secure and malware-free, your best option is to obtain software that protects you against both problems. Anti-virus software and anti-spyware software in the same package afford you a more complete, robust protection against the ever growing number of malicious programs that threaten your computer from the World Wide Web.