- Why You Should Worry About Keeping Your Computer Safe
- Getting to Everything Security Related in Vista
- What Spyware and Malware Are and How Your Computer Gets Them
- Symptoms of Malware on Your Computer
- Getting Rid of and Keeping Malware Off Your Computer
- Windows Defender
- What to Do If You Suspect Malware But Can't Get a Pop-Up to Close
- What Is a Virus and How Is It Different from Spyware?
- Protecting Your Computer from Viruses
- Determining If You Have a Virus
- The Importance of Automatic Updates
- Turning On Automatic Updating
- What Is Windows Firewall?
- Why You Should Back Up Your Computer
- Backing Up the Files on Your Computer
- Backing Up Your Entire Computer
- Where to Store Backups
- Restoring Your Computer from a Backup
- Automatically Backing Up Your Computer
- What Is Service Pack 1 (a.k.a. SP1)?
- How Do I Get SP1?
- How Do I Install SP1?
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
What Is a Virus and How Is It Different from Spyware?
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A virus is a different form of malware because it can be destructive (FYI: You may also have heard viruses referred to as worms or Trojan horses). While spyware can be destructive from the aspect of slowing down your computer and lessening your enjoyment of your Internet experience, a virus can be destructive to the point of destroying your important files. Here’s the really important part, though: not only is a virus different, but the way that Vista handles them is different. You see, Vista includes ways to protect your computer from spyware. However, it doesn’t include any type of virus protection. This means that, out of the box, Vista will not protect your computer from viruses you can get from emailing or downloading files. If you want to get virus protection, you’re going to need some type of third-party software for that.