I read on another posting that a third party anti-malware application will disable Windows Defender. That post was a few years old. I am running Windows 10 on one system on my network. I installed Avast freeware version. It seems to be a anti-malware application from what I read, whereas Windows Defender is just a anti-virus application. So, would I be correct in assuming that Avast is more "comprehensive" in the protection it provides?
What is the difference between the types of malware risks and how does one determine if an application for Windows 10 will address all the various types of malware?
I do understand that there are specialized applications that target specific types of viruses, or spyware apps. They are run on demand, correct? And one does not want to have two different antivirus or anti-spyware apps running in the background at all times. Is that correct, my distinction between anti-malware resident apps vs on demand apps?
Thanks in advance for any help/advice, Bruce
Malware stands for malicious software. A virus is type of malware that can replicate itself. Malware are mainly detected with a signature by anti-malware. It is a pattern of binary codes that can be found on all malware files relating to a familly of malware. It does not matter what kind of sub-specie the malware belongs to, because the detection is the same (for signature-based detection).
If the question is how to choose an anti-malware app, honestly you have not (me too) objective information on the current performance of anti-malware. Choose to trust one that you are please with, you will gain time. Even if you read tests on internet they are, for the most part, not objective and you will end up trusting one or the other product based on biased informations. All major anti-malware products will protect you from known threats, either virus, worms, trojan or spyware, and will not (or less) protect you from newest threats (heuristic detection only).