Can we use Multiple Antivirus Apps on One PC?
To solve this question, i found a discussion on Yahoo which may describe the situation clearly.. Here's a quote from the thread:
Running multiple security applications at the same time, particularly anything that runs in real time like antivirus or firewall programs, can wreak havoc on Windows, crash your computer, give you many headaches, and, in the very best case, merely slow your computer to a crawl.
The problem is worst with antivirus programs, which is designed to keep constant tabs on files being changed or created without your knowledge. But since antivirus programs are constantly doing this kind of thing behind the scenes, there's a good chance one program will try to block the behavior of the other program, and vice versa. The result could be a catastrophic failure of both applications (leaving you without any protection), or just general instability in Windows. This is so common that if you try to install one antivirus app on top of another, many installers will warn you not to do so.
(You can read the full thread on the website)
If i AGREE with that. The next question is Which of these three freebies should I choose? 'Avira vs avast vs AVG' ? or Can i just use All three on 1 PC?
Some computer savys place Avira at number one, some choose avast!, others prefer AVG. Actually, I'm still unsure which one is the best, BECAUSE.. According to my own experience, After using both 3 one 1 PC, every app has the (+) and (-). Using more than one 'real-time' antivirus program can cause conflicts and use much system resources, so in most cases it is recommended we only choose only one antivirus application for real-time protection. I use the other two apps as Back-up scanners to prevent any 'missed' virusses/trojans/malwares/spywares/etc.
Here's my ranking from best to good, and how i use them:
(++++++++) avast! (real-time)
(++++++) Avira (as backup scanner, manual)
(++++) AVG (as backup scanner, manual)
Why do i prefer avast!?
The free edition of avast! antivirus app GIVEs me more features than the others. The performance so far is great. Although the detection of viruses is weaker than AntiVir.
Avast! Home Edition Antivirus 4.8
(+) Antispyware built-in
(+) Active Email-scanning
(+) There's also Web scanner
(+) Internet Messaging protection
(+) Outlook/Exchange shield
(+) P2P protection is also available
(+) Fast when update, updates several times a day, and each update is small and quick
(o) Real-time/active residential shield on background: On-Access protection
(o) average on resources (File-size 27MB)
(o) Higher detection rate than AVG, but not as high as Avira
(o) Email registration to get Free License
(-) Relatively high rate of false postives
(-) Complicated user interface (like a media player with annoying buttons, my eyes hate it)
Avira Antivir Personal Antivirus 8.2
(+) it's VERY light (installer-file-size only 21MB)
(+) it uses few system resources, making it a good choice for older computers
(+) UI is simple (i like simplicity)
(+) Anti rootkit
(+) Full details on Report/Logs/Results
(+) Fast scan speed
(o) Real-time/active residential shield on background: Guard protection
(o) It has a time-limited license but it's renewable
(-) Slow when update
(-) Unfortunately, this Free edition does NOT have spyware protection. You have to switch to premium edition to grab it.
(-) No active email-scanner, It won't warn us of infected emails before we open them. However, should we open an infected email, we're still protected from email-based infections.
(-) Advertisements that appear with every update, however these ads can be 'disabled' with a trick.
AVG Free Edition Antivirus 8.0
(+) Email scanner
(+) UI is nice, simple and modern
(+) it's heavy (installer-file-size 51MB)
(o) Real-time/active residential shield on background: Resident Shield
(o) LinkScanner Lite (slow my browsing on search engine), fortunately it can be 'disabled' with a trick: How to Disable AVG LinkScanner
(-) it does NOT have rootkit detection, You have to switch to paid version to grab it.
(-) often having trouble with Automatic Update manager on my pc
(-) Very slow scan speed
(-) 'Exclamation Mark' on the AVG icon if we disable one of the features
(-) install Toolbar by default + advertisement (AdBanner on program)
>> TIPS to prevent any conflicts using all 3 apps on a single PC?
+ Use only the most trusted app to be a 'real-time' protection on background. In this case, i prefer avast! and the other two apps are used just for back-up scanners, only to make sure that less thing is missed.
+ Use Exclusions (for other antivirus apps' files/folders to be excluded from scanning)
NOTE1: I DO NOT suggest your computer/pc/laptop should sport all those 3 protections if you feel confident with just one of them (the best according to you). Using only one can prevent conflicts, and of course it will use far less system resources/memory usage.
NOTE2: Most of the comparison reviews in this article were based on the experiences i had on my computer, and also after reading lots of other reviews online. Please understand that it is very personal and subjective.
As we all know that all those three antivirus apps are constantly updated from time to time. The features and UIs of those antivirus apps should be different in any future versions or when you read this article (please see the versions of the apps and when i wrote this post).
If you want share your experiences using avast or avira or avg antivirus, feel free to tell me your opinion in the comment section
28 comments on "How to use 3 Antivirus Apps on 1 PC without conflicts"
i wanna advise u u should use only one antivirus that should be avira free because its detection rate is good n if u wanna online protection that avast provide with web scanner its suck because online infection can't be solve by all these antivirus so just use avira free.
avira is good but i prefer avast! i have been using avast! for years without any problems
Thankyou
You have really gone into detail with everything.
I use AVG and have not had any problems for over the last year.
Thanks again
Mike
None the above only KIS 2009.
i have used all 3 of these applications and i chose Avast over the others for a couple of reasons...AVG has a real problem with updates (at least on my pc they did) and avira was much better about updates , but slow and with annoying ad.
That's a good rating system, I actually find it quite accurate.
I wouldn't touch AVG with a bargepole, but avast and avira are both very good anti-viruses.
The big difference in the 2 is the resources, as avast uses a noticeably larger amount than avira however avast has a better real-time system but has an extremely annoying default alarm for notifying you of malware, (The big alarm, then Caution, A virus has been detected) if you have headphones on loud it can scare the shite out of you.
Anywho, Good job on the results, they are accurate.. Hopefully people will read it before they decide to spend countless money on Norton, Mccafee or Kaspersky.
Greg.
avast รจ il migliore al mondo
Great read, thanks
Hey dude! Great breakdown of the hits 'n' misses. Been looking for a quick 'n' easy S/W to download for the average user and had a mixed bag of sh_t from all over the place. you gave the 3 main players in the freebee field a great comparison without disparaging any. Thanks for the real unbiased assessments. Thinkin' if everyone was this up front about things, how much better the whole place would rock! :o)~
i think avast is the best.i use avast for last 1 years still now.its update time is very good.where antivir has prob to update .but it has great detection rate than avast. pc tools anti virus ,rising antivirus are bogus they have same update prob.but pc tools threet fire is very good it can work together with any anti virus.over all avast is the best. in my openion avast home 4.8+thretfire=much beter protection.what is thret fire? to know link to http: //www.threatfire.com/
Avira is the best so far, and its scanner is very well to catch and stop "W32.Virut.CF"
For AVG 8.5, and Avast 4.8 both useless... they cannot stop "W32.Virut.CF" to infect "userinit" and "Rundll32".. winsock etc..
Once these files are infected, user cannot go any antivirus, antispyware, and microsoft site.. and brower redirect and go 127.0.0.1 instead...
Actually I have tried all of the current free Anti Virus in my computer. The first one that I tried is the AVG, many people are telling me that it is a good anti virus and it provides outstanding results, but only 2 weeks after I installed AVG, my computer responds slowly, and some of my files are corrupted, thus concluding that my computer is infected with many viruses and the only hope is to reformat the PC. It was a very hard time for me because all of my important files (pictures, doc, excel, video, music) were corrupted thus I did not perform any kind of back up........
Secondly I found on some internet reviews that AVAST is good anti virus, I have used avast for only 4 months, but within that time, my computer is performing quite well, and all my files were all intact. But with this kind of AV I don't feel protected so I desperately search the NET for a suitable alternative.
Lastly I found AVIRA (free), after downloading Avira I immediately un installed the AVAST to make room for AVIRA, I was surprised on how the it performs, it has I high detection rate of viruses compared to the others and its much more system friendly. Upto now I have been using and recommending AVIRA for almost 2 years now.
If I were to rate from 1 to 100 AVIRA, AVAST, AVG
this would be the result
AVG 74
why? weak in virus detecting, slow scanning speeds, installer is quite big, and not enough frequent updates
AVAST 87
why? good virus detection, good scanning speeds, good updates, low in system resources, un-tidy user interface
AVIRA 94
why? good scan time, very good virus detecting capabilities, frequent updates, low on system resources, sometimes slow updates and somewhat come with annoying commercials.
Take Care and God Bless
i used all of the three antivirus And i prefer use only AVIRA, Dont ever think about AVG....
good morning dear ., hard to hear that 1 but no antivirus can remove virus from sits . anyways 4 ur knowledge Avast professional eddition is far better then avira use n c the difference one more this any antivirus which have strong effiency to remove virus effect system file so it is adviced to all user to us registery boster also
I agree with you, I've been using both free Avira & avast, my question is, how do you stop antivir guard from activating it self during startup or system boot? I always have to manually deactivated it every time I started my laptop.
By the way, which one better to have Malwarebytes'AntiMalware or SuperAntiSpyware? or maybe you like to recommend other anti-spyware program?
I use ZoneAlarm as my firewall, is it good? what's better than ZA?
I use vista as my os
Thanks
I'm using AVIRA free since last 2 years. It's detection rate is really better than AVAST free or AVG free. But many alarms are false actually and update is a problem. I shall try AVG 9 free soon to check its tall claims
Hi all
I have both AVIRA and AVAST installed on XP, which just occasionally leads to slowdowns which can be overcome by a restart.
Keep in mind that the default protection of the AVAST "Providers" (for example messagine, mail, browsing, P2P etc) is not at it's highest, but that can be configured.
What interests me particularly is that AVIRA claims -every time it runs- to have found a Trojan 'TR/Crypt.XPACK.Gen' under
'C:\WINDOWS\Temp\_avast4_\unp125099824.tmp'
Note the "_avast4_" ..
I'm pretty sure AVIRA is attempting to discredit AVAST with a bogus find. Does anyone know more?
Otherwise, thanks for the original article and all the comments, including wher only barly reedable.
Thanks
Douglas
avast is good and avira is better than avast and avg is ussless antivir of the world usde only avira
I have been using Avast Free for about 6 years now on multiple computers. It is simply amazing for a free antivirus/spyware program. I check my systems approx every 6 or so months to verify (with alternative programs) that Avast is doing it's job and so far it's been perfect. I don't not find that it reports alot of false positives and I have all my real time shields on high. It virtually never reports false positives. Also, the new 2010 version has a pretty interface.
I cannot and will not recommend AVG. I have not seen the newest version fail, but their older versions failed to detect on a lot of different systems and I just have a bad feeling about using it...although it's definitely better than nothing.
Never used Avira so I can't say anything about it.
I believe that Avira has its own virus that it installs in your computer to scare you into renewing Avira. I bought it last April 5 and by rights should be covered until midnight April 4,2010 and I have been getting a daily count down reminders for the past ten days. Today however my computer froze up and my windows security centre said that I had 21 viruses including some very serious ones. It will now not even let me get on to the internet. This seems like a very criminal way of doing business and I am very angry.
I wonder why none of you noted that the avast's interface can be modified . If you dislike the current interface change it .
I prefer avast then the other, because it's free and so power full but sometime it truly sensitive for some file, it can detect clean file to be a virus.
Tried AVIRA and i'm getting comfortable, but do you know the best paid antivirus out there??? Norton 30 completetely took over my pc and slowede down.
For firewall try Comodo and a great site for testing firewalls is shields-up. As for your spy ware protection use both SUPERAntispyware which has a real time protection and Malwarebytes’AntiMalware is a great double checker.
yes but kis 2009 is good protection but to much resource need for older pc is bad but for new is good
i suggest using avira free coz its more powerful in detection than avast..l.and sometimes it detects file or websites w/c isnt even a virus or a harmful site....
i say avira is the best!
it can protect my computer very well
I prefer Avira because it can protect my computer very well by detecting harmful websites or viruses,especially harmful downloaded files.
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