Whats the difference between a virus, spyware, adware, malware?

As far as i concerned a virus is a small program that invades your computer and has bad intentions, spyware spy’s for information, adware is software with advertising, and malware is malicious software.
I have written a more detailed article about it here http://tips4pc.com/Computer_security/whats_the_difference_between_a_v.htm but I would like to know everyone else’s take on this?

You need to re-write on some certain points. You’re correct to say that malware is malicious software but you can add more by saying malware is a generic term that covers all such as adware/spyware, rogue, virus, trojan, worm, rootkit, backdoor and more.

Actually, there is a fine line between adware and spyware, because in many cases adware can report back info as well as advertise without the users’ consent and knowledge. You can also add, that banner ads are capable of more than just advertising, malicious users can use them to hide malware and in some cases, doesn’t even need users to click on them, it can close and open the website and then direct them to a website where a scan appears and then try to scare users into thinking their computers are infected and pushes rogue software on them.

You’re correct that a virus is a small program which can replicate and once executed can attach to other programs and can cause different levels of harm.

Anyway, there is a lot to write up about as I only cover a fraction of it.

Part 3 of Avast vs. Malware, adware, viruses

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2011 – 3 User $3.94 SFT CLP TM TITANIUM INT SEC 2011 CON…

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 – 3 User [Old Version] $8.43 Strong, fast, and easy-to-use protection–Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security uses cloud technology to automatically stop viruses and spyware before they reach your computer, so it won’t slow you down–it’s a whole new way to protect your computer. Real-time updates keep your PC protected from the latest online threats. Using less than half the disk space and memory of traditional security pro…