Viruses, Trojans, spyware, bots and worms are all part of a class of computer software called malware. Malware or malicious software is a group of codes or a software that is specifically created to cause damage, disruption, stealing of information or any other malicious intent that is being distributed over networks, computers and online. Malware and virus are oftentimes used interchangeably when discussing the typical or general computer infections. In the last few years or so, being able to determine for the purpose of eradication of malware or virus requires the right malware/virus removal program. Moreover, malware comes in many and different forms, even if they are slightly different from another, can still do damage, interruption or corruption to the normal computer usage.

There are now many different kinds of malware that have varying ways of how they damage a computer, each more dangerous than the previous one. Some commonly known types of malicious software are viruses, Trojans, worms, bots, back doors, spyware and adware. The damage that can be caused by malware into the computer varies from just a simple pop up or stuff that causes minor irks to stealing private information and money through online bank accounts. As malware cannot damage any of the hardware components of the computer there is nothing to worry about computer getting cracked or broken by malware. However the effects of malware in the computer can be very huge that the user may need to change or reformat a computer for a fix.

The two most widely known malware are the Trojans and the viruses. These malware have the ability to replicate and spread copies of themselves to the computer systems. A virus’s main identity is that it can procreate itself and that it depends upon a host or a program. A computer virus propagates by inserting a copy of itself into a program and lets itself be part of that program. It spreads quickly from one computer to another causing mild annoyance to destroying data and software up to causing a denial of service from a program where it hosts. Almost all of the viruses are executable files or that they end with .exe file extension like filename.exe. Virus can quickly spread from one computer to another when the file or program or data they are attached to is transferred from one computer to another over the network, flash drive, disk or file sharing. As you can now see, the virus is a type of malware.

There have been countless anti-virus software programs that have been created and have been successful upon the removal of such viruses. However, the anti-virus programs are specifically made to eradicate viruses only and not the other types of malware that can also enter your computer. Since malware is a class of computer damaging software and virus is just one of them, the anti-virus software that is in your computer cannot remove any other malware such as worms as the software of virus differ from other malware. In order to properly clean your computer of this malicious software, you must not only be content on having a strong anti-virus but that you should have good anti-spyware and other anti-malwares as well.