Spyware and Adware? Is it the same thing?

Answer 1

Spyware tracks your surfing habits and personal info (without consent) and sends them over the internet so that more targeted ads can be placed.
Adware is software integrated into a program....which just spams you with ads and may also report your activities. some programs include it just to recoup costs.
Not to much of a difference but there is one....I think....

Answer 2

No, they aren't the same. Spyware are programs that get personal information from your hard drive and Adware are programs that automatically download themselves onto your computer. Both should be considered dangerous and should be removed. Get a good firewall and virus protection system and also I recommend Lavasoft's Ad-Aware Adware removal program. Spyware can be taken care of with Spybot or Windows Defender. Both Adware and Spyware come from music/media downloading software like Kazaa and Limewire so beware. Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Sort of, think of spyware as stuff hanging out in the background spying on you, adaware is about the same, stuff that adds itself onto your browser for instance is adaware. Below is what I use to keep that crap off my computer. All Free

Here is what I use to keep my computer clean, note on the AVG there is a new free version, 7.5 I think it is.

Anti Virus
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-anti-virus-free-edition/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 - AVG Anti Virus
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ - Trend Micro free online virus and spyware scan

Protection from BHO (browser helper objects) spyware, malware
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html - Spywareblaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html - Spywareguard

Scanning for spyware and removing
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php - Ad-Aware SE Personal
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html - Spybot search and destroy