Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer?

I see no problem having two anti-virus programs on the computer but only one should be active and running... the other can be used on demand but even then I would shut down or disable the other while a scan in in progress.

AFAIK it does not matter which anti-virus programs are used... there are plenty of free ones that should do just fine. I am presently using Avast and have used AVG in the past... never any problems with viruses or malware.

Hope this helps.

Glenn

Don't do it.
Don't get AVG.
and don't install 2 ANTIVIRUS.
I loved AVG.
Get something else.
Me ? I use AVAST! now too, very good.

listen to him or find out the hard way like i did when i had to have my laptop repaired because the 2 AV's caused my OS to crash....

I'm running Windows Defender and Spyware Doctor, both active, and having no problems whatsoever. Every so often a window pops up from Windows Defender telling me I should only have one av running at a time and asking if I want to close Defender. I just say no and things continue without incident.

Sorry not offense.
Those are "Antispyware" or "Spyware" programs.

They are NOT "Antivirus"
2 completely different programs.

I've heard that more than one real-time antispyware is also not good. There'll be no obvious conflicts, but they could actually stop each other from detecting malware. I'm not too sure of the details myself, but it was from a trustworthy source.

It is not recommended, because Antiviruses lock themselfs at the kernel level.
One type of programing might see the other as a threat, hence creating a conflict on the boot process.
Or it may simple see the other antivirus as a competing application and try to disable one another, again creating a conflic.
Even if both work together it will slow down your pc.

Why would you want to have to when one well design, should do the job.

Try using AVAST HOME EDITION FREE, from www.avast.com.

It has seven shields that cover all, Antivirus/Antispyware/Antirootkit, email checking(client or online), p2p checking, web shield, general shield, chat shield.

It works fantastic with XP and Vista.

You can even stop MS Window Defender, but this one does not conflict with AVAST.

PCTOOLS, Antivirus/Antispyware Free edition does not conflict with AVAST either.
The free version of this can only be downloaded from Google Applications even if you don't download any of Google applications.
However, pctools application wants to constantly send information about your usage to pctools so that they can keep track of how many infections they have stopped.
This to me is too intrusive and really don't need it with AVAST.

AVAST is also free, you need a key but the only thing they request for you to get your key is your email address.
And to renew it every years.

No big deal for the protection AVAST provides for free.

For a review on Avast got pcmag.com and search for Avast Reviews.

I have been using Avast for some time now and it has never let me down...I mean perhaps I have never come across a virus that this guy couldn't catch, but that is all I know......no problems......another spyware catcher I like is Advanced Windows Care (free-version)...it does about 7 different functions with one push of a button, and does it well and has never caused a problem or conflict, low on resources and it just plain works well.....It catches some things that Ad-aware, spy-bot R*D, crap cleaner, e-z cleaner and some others didn't do too well with.....highly recommend Avast and Advanced Windows Care.......

best..

OK, first off, the poster you answered was merely commenting on my post, which was commenting on an answer given to the original question. There is no reason to malign him for that.

Second, I have used both Avast and Avira on separate machines at the same time to compare the two before deciding on one or the other. Therefore, I have experience with both programs. (Do you? ) BTW: I quit using AVG several years ago when it became bloated and allowed my machine to get such a bad infestation that I had to replace not only the software but the hardware as well. That was back when it first became fashionable to hack innocent web pages and infest them with stuff that would infest anyone happening to land there.

Through my experience with both programs I have found Avast to be much superior to Avira. Avast may use a bit more resources, but [at least] it doesn't plant a tracking cookie on your computer with an extremely annoying splash screen (that can NOT be disabled) every time you boot up like Avira does. Avast is a much stronger and more multi-faceted solution than Avira because it is designed to look in more targeted areas of the computer with much stronger heuristics. It also updates in more frequent intervals. I have it set to update every four hours, though it can be set to do so more frequently if desired. In addition, Avast is much more customizable to fit the particular needs of the user whereas Avira uses a more generic shotgun approach.

ONE stinking link does absolutely nothing to prove anything one way or the other. I suppose you believe everything you see advertised in just ONE place and fail to investigate any further, eh?

As for one possible solution to the original question, I have always preferred to use one on-board AV program and back it up with an on-line scanner so that benefit is derived not only from two separate virii databases, but so that if the machine gets infested with something which disables its on-board arsenal, the on-line scan should most likely (at very least) find the problem and either fix it or show me where to look to do it manually. In addition to the on-board and on-line AV solutions, two different anti-spyware solutions, a file shredder (which is used to overwrite the infection's files permanently) and a third party software firewall are included in the anti-malware arsenal and physically wired behind a fire walled router. I have found this to be quite effective!

The infestation I experienced the other day [while in a chat room for the first time in over a year] was the only one I've had since I quit using AVG. Avast cried and disallowed enough of the thing that I could manually finish the job. What Avast couldn't show me, Spybot Search & Destroy did. Because of the fact that these two programs look for different types of files, one backed up the other. This made what could have been a catastrophic instance requiring a week to rebuild the system into a mere two hour job of researching, finding and Erasing the rest of the files contained in the infestation that anti-malware progs alone could not. After finding and cleaning the files I needed to do manually I ran the F-Secure on-line scanner I gave above and it came out squeaky clean!

In addition to computer programs, I use "best practices" by disabling on-board e-mail apps and using web-based e-mail only-NOT even opening spam before simply deleting it, NOT downloading files of any kind except for the few downloadable programs I use, being careful of where I go on the net while doing my research, etc., etc., etc. ..............

If you get right down to it, my laptop running PCLinuxOS 2007 (which I'm writing this from at the present moment) is much more secure than my desktop which has Win XP installed! This is because Windoze is an extremely large target for nefarious miscreants simply because M$ has flooded the market with its "product! This leaves Linux to go on its merry way. ...For the time being, that is.


NOW, does THAT "actually answer the guy's question about running two anti-virus apps at the same time" good enough for you? I sincerely hope so.

well i run norton 2007 internet security and system mechanic 7 and i use privacy guard and spyware doctor and agv all together with never a single problem all actively running together.
so from my piont i can see any problems at all to be honest i just think it depends what your computor is like to certain programs and how they all react together.
so far i have just been lucky you might say but all the same i get loads of alerts from them all and each on does its job correctly as i run another program then the same again to see if its removed and always seem successfull removing things when they appear unexpectedly.

anyway thats me done about what i run on my pc thanks folks.

You should research WAY more than 1 website.
There's alot more than just detection rate to consider also.
Not saying it's bad...

I have installed both AVG and Avast on one PC for years. It works well.
I also help friends installed both program. No problem!

Dun install two AVs......
1) Avast! AV
2) Spyware terminator
3) COMODO Firewall.
4) Adware as a backup.

That's perfect!!
But both Spy Ter and COMODO will make U troublesome....
But..
U will see how they work....
All are free.

Regards,

I have no machine where I depend on one manufacturer claiming that just one product can offer full protection. Look at the tests, there is no such thing as 100% detection/protection.

Let me put it like this - ever since we had been hit by a zero-day attack some years ago, we have been using several anti-(virus/spy...) programs on the same machines. Even though we were protected by the anti-virus scanner of a VPN and a scanner running on the local machines, the bug hit us - simply because both scanners were updated _after_ we had been hit. We used a third application to catch the bug; obviously the updating schedule of that application was more effective.

Another aspect that you might want to take into consideration is that none of these applications catches all bugs. So, as they work differently, chances are that the bug not caught by application A might be caught by application B (which has been the case on some of our machines).

Even running a scan with, let's say Adaware or Spybot Search & Destroy, might trigger a bug to be caught that (strange enough) could not be detected by the very anti-virus application when doing a full scan before.
Looks like one way to probe files lets a certain bug jump, other ways are not effective for this bug but might be for others.

Last not least the question of stability and speed. Depends on what you use your machine for. Usually the machines are overpowered for office use, anyway. So a certain slowdown by the constant scanning does not really matter. If you feel you need more speed - switch some stuff off (but not all).
Stability - well, it is a no-brainer:
- Machine runs stable even with half a dozen of protective applications guarding your machine - great. You can't have enough protection!
- Machine gets quirky - just spend a little time to identify the conflicting application(s) and switch it/them of. Or just use one (as suggested in other replies), so nothing lost

We have been doing this for years now and from my experience speaking, compatibility and/or stability seems to be more a matter of hardware components than a matter of several protective applications running at the same time.

On my private machines (desktops and laptop) the following is running in memory: AVG and Avira (anti-virus), Spyware Doctor (Google pack version), and the Tea Timer of Spybot Search & Destroy (does report attempts to change the registry). Works well for me.