What is difference between antivirus and spyware?

[traconsulting]

I am confuse between antivirus and spyware. please suggest me difference between these.....

[happygeek]

Really, are you?

Antivirus is protection against infection (the clue is in the name).

Spyware is something malicious that infects your computer (the clue is in the name).

[glenn_3]

traconsulting,
recommend you type the following into your favorite web search engine (two distinct and separate searches)

what is antivirus software

what is spyware

come back with questions once you've read some stuff :-)

[rubberman]

One is positive, the other negative. Positive and negative charges attract each other. Spyware helps sell antivirus software. Bingo! No spyware... No antivirus! Myself, I run Linux on all of my personal systems, and Windows only in a virtual machine. I have never had an issue with spyware/malware on Linux. Too frequently on Windows. Fortunately, I can rollback my Windows virtual machine image to the last snapshot after being infected and immediately remove the infection.