Are you confused between antivirus and antimalware software?
Then this post can help you solve this problem.
Lets find out how these two types of software are different.
And which one should you choose?
Understanding Antivirus and Antimalware software
To understand antivirus and antimalware, we must first understandviruses vs malware.
Actually, Malware is anything malicious which affects the normal functionality of the computer.
And Virus is a kind of malware which spreads from one program to another.
Virus is the first kind of malware emerged in 90s.
So term virus and antivirus get more popular.
New kind of malware increased after 2010 and now term malware and anti-malware are used widely.
A virus is a kind of malware.
So, malware is a broad term that includes all types of malicious software.
But in the initial days, antivirus software became popular to eliminate all kinds of threats.
And they named this software antimalware.
Antivirus usually deals with the older, more established threats, such as Trojans, viruses, and worms.
Unlike viruses, malware is dynamic in nature.
In the 90s, viruses were a force to reckon with.
As a result, viruses became the most dreaded form of malware.
Advancement in computer knowledge has brought about solutions to almost all virus attacks.
An antivirus protects your setup against malicious software that may be transferred from the internet or through flash drives.
Antivirus will detect such program files before they replicate and eliminate them completely.
Basically, anti-malware uses behavioral technology to detect unknown threats.
Antivirus is more efficient in dealing with viruses, trojans, and other forms of already known malware.
An anti-malware is more effective in dealing with unknown threats.
An anti-malware program will remain running on your rig every minute.
It scans the files used by the computer and removes any file found suspicious or harmful.
In most cases, an anti-malware needs to remain connected to the internet to keep updating itself.
Are antivirus and antimalware the same?
Technology wise they both are different, but as a software they are almost doing the same task.
Initially, these two pieces of software used different technologies.
But now, both software programs have adapted to each others technologies.
So, with a few exceptions, both programs do almost the same things in the modern world.
Mostly Antimalware uses a cloud-based multi-antivirus engine to scan for viruses and gets the advantage of traditional virus definitions.
It also gives them more power over single engine scanning.
Antivirus software is now integrating the antimalware module, and antimalware is integrating the antivirus scanning engine.
So they are doing almost the same task.
But check and compare the features carefully, as all of them are not created equally.
Conclusion : which one should you choose?
The links below can be useful for you to choose the right security software for you.
As I am using on my LaptopNorton 360+Hitman Pro Alert+Malwarebytes.
And this combination is very effective and is also light on system resources.
I chose Malwarebytes Pro as it has strong web protection with a database of malicious URLs.
It protects against bad urls, malicious advertising urls, etc.
along with its strong antimalware capabilities.
hey share your thoughts about this and also suggest the best combination as per your experience.
you could also use an antimalware software as asecond opinion scannerto maximize the security.
Both work on different technologies to catch any malware.
Today, most of the antivirus software includes antimalware, and antimalware utilizes the antivirus scanning in the cloud.
Yes, mostly they all have the antimalware capability.
This explains the reason as to why many companies use the name antivirus.
Actually, different security products have different methodologies of protection.
So there is no harm in keeping another piece of software for a second opinion.
It makes sure that we are fully secured.
Over bare antivirus we recommend to use antimalware.
And over antimalware we recommend to use a total security suite.
