Note: This article was a popular post in our last Tech Tails, so we have posted an excerpt here. For the full article, click here to go to our blog, Barkings! -KH
I occasionally get customers who say their systems are running very slowly. They may be brand new or a couple of years old, and the actual cause varies. Maybe they upgraded to the latest version of an application and now need more RAM. Maybe their hard disk is running low on space, or perhaps it’s failing. Quite often, it’s because they installed a bunch of applications that are auto-launching at login.
Every so often though, I will get someone who has done a little research on the web and has convinced him or herself that they have some sort of virus or spyware and want to know how to get rid of it. Just for the record, it is highly unlikely that a virus is the cause. In order to understand why, there are a few key points to know regarding the differences between Windows and OS X.
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How does malware infect a computer? To understand that, a few definitions are in order.
Malware is an encompassing term which includes viruses, spyware, and adware, and is used to describe any program that serves no purpose other than to make your life miserable. A virus in computer terminology is an application designed to replicate itself and spread to other computers, typically causing data loss of some form.
Spyware collects information about you and sends it to some outside entity without your knowledge or approval. One form of spyware, known as a keylogger, will record what you type in order to steal logins and passwords.
Adware is an application that puts pop-up advertisements on your screen, trying to get you to buy things you don’t need or visit sites you were better off not knowing about. In most cases, adware is a harmless annoyance, but it can slow your system down.