Recently a customer of ours had trouble getting online (and therefore not able to receive emails).  We did a bit of problem solving and it turned out to be his Anti-Virus software blocking Internet Explorer.

However, along the way, I recommended that he purchases and installs some Anti-Spyware software.  He did so but asked by did the Anti-Spyware find things that the Anti-Virus software missed.

The answer is that they are looking for different things.

• Viruses are malicious pieces of software that once you ‘catch’ them, they infect your computer in various ways.  Once you’re infected you need to be disinfected.  AntiVirus software does this.  So, it’s treating the symptoms of ‘illness’.  The software should be sophisticated enough to also root out and remove any Viruses that are sitting on your computer dormant.
• Spyware is also malicious but it’s job is to sit on your computer, not affecting your files or functionality, but recording and broadcasting information about your activity or data to others.  Your computer isn’t ill because of the presence of such software, but it can be slowed down by all the extra processing it has to do.

You really need to have both on your computers.

If you have any experiences about viruses or spyware or the software used to control these, do post your comments here.

Warm regards,
Cat Young
www.solve-the-web.co.uk