is it OK to use more than one antivirus in my computer?

Question

i have been using norton & avast for almost half a year, and they are working well. but my dad keep warning me to use only one so that it is more efficient. my cousin recently said norton & avast are not good combination, combine norton & AVG are better choice.

Answer 1

It is actually good practice to use more than one antivirus program, because none of them are perfect.

This is OK for the daily or weekly scanning of your system, but you may have problems with the virus shield and e-mail scanning features, because they rely on intercepting very low level system calls within Windows.

You can either check that your two virus programs are compatible, or disable the virus shield on one of them and use ot only for daily scans.

It is a particularly good idea to use more than one if you are using Norton, because historically Norton has been very poor at identifying some risks like trojans.

Answer 2

NO, it is not OK and your dad is right. Keep either Avast OR Norton OR AVG. You may not mark the difference, but the one you will use will certainly become more efficient. I would rank them in the order:
1.AVG
2.Avast(more style than substance)
3.Norton(uses a hell lot of memory)

Answer 3

Yes, Your dad is right. They usually conflict with each other.

To tell you the truth Norton is one of the worst anti virus scanners I have seen. Not only dose it NOT detect viruses as well as AVG or Avast(both free). But it hogs alot of system resources.

Besides the more you use the more system resources you will lose like Ram, Cpu Cycles, HD space, etc. I suggest AVG but I also like Avast

Answer 4

I use Spyware Terminator, AVG free edition and Windows Defender.
You know, it's good to be fully protected, but some irritating problems can get on your ******* nerves
well, apart from your computer, which slows down, it's irritating to see a couple of firewalls blocking programs like MSN. You choose to unblock it in the 1st antivirus program but you have to do the same to the other 2. It's not only msn, which has to be unblocked. it's lots of other pc programs, that must be unblocked thrice (three times). so irritating.

Answer 5

it is ok, as long as they dont contradict with each other or consume so much space or use up so much memory...yes, try to learn what good combination to use but my advice for you is dont use norton...AVG is good...i have found the best that works as an all around protector(from being an antivirus, to antispam, to spyware protector, to pop-up blocker, etc.)...the program is Bitdefender...u should try it, with that, i dont think you need to use more than one antivirus...just always remember to keep on using the program...maybe 2 times a week...but it would be best if you use it daily...that should help :D

Answer 6

Well if you managed to do it. But actually it may consume more ram and make your pc slower. Instead of two antivirus. You could use a combination of
antivirus + antispyware + antikeylogger + firewall
for antispyware a good suggestion is microsoft's windows defender along with built in firewall in xp.

Answer 7

you should use only one as they may conflict and cause problems i suggest you keep the avast its better than norton but avg is better yet

Answer 8

It's not a good idea as the two will fight it out for control over discovered viruses and could cause a system lockup. Seems you have been lucky until now however I would never recommend running two anti-virus. Buy a quality one if you are worried about your current one. Kapersky gets a very good rating in all the tests.

Answer 9

You should use only 1 antivirus program. And Norton is not as good as they say... Here you have some good and free antivirus programs to download. Just make your choice:
http://askcomputerexpert.ws43.com/download/

Answer 10

Give up using Windows, and install Linux on your computer. Linux is immune to all viruses, malware, spyware and adware.

Linux is a complete operating system that is either free or very cheap ($10-$30) and comes bundled with a huge variety of free software.

The Linux desktop is amazingly flexible and customizable, and anyone who is used to Windows will soon feel comfortable with it - and shocked by how dull their old Windows system looks by comparison! For example, in Linux you can use up to twenty (yes twenty) separate desktop work spaces - Windows only gives you one.

Go to www.distrowatch.com to find out how to get all the popular flavors of Linux...

...then do an image search for Linux screen grabs on Google.

BE COOL - GET LINUX

DC :)