How many anti-virus programs should you use?

I have heard great things about the following anti-virus/anti-malware programs:

Microsoft Security Essentials
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
Spybot Search and Destroy
Spyware Blaster
Avira
Avast

I know some people have at least 2. They usually say that what one program doesn't pick up, the other one usually does. Or it's good to have another one as an extra layer of defense.

But I have also heard that certain programs can't run at the same time because they would conflict with each other.

Would it be a problem if I installed all six of the above programs? If so then what would you say the limit is? and which ones go well together? How can you tell which programs would conflict with other programs?

 

Do you want to do some work or play refree for all these programs ?

Out of these 6 install one & only one of the following:

Microsoft Security Essentials
Avira
Avast

You can install all other 3 without any problems as they don't run continuously & are meant to enhance your protection. You should run them manually once in a week or fortnight.

Hard to tell. Most of the info is on the vendors website. In general only one anti virus should be enabled at one time.

 

What do you mean?

I'll probably go with MSE as it doesn't bother you with ads to upgrade the product to a paid version like the other 2.

 

Good choice, I run MSE on both of my computers (one is a notebook) & it is light & easy to use. I've used it now for well over a year & I am impressed with it.

SpywareBlaster is incredibly light on the system & works by blacklisting the CLSID of known malware programs. The freeware version has to be manually updated every fortnight (two weeks) or so. It can safely run with an antivirus program.

I prefer SUPERAntiSpyware as an on-demand scanner (the freeware version is not realtime) but even with the freeware version it will load in the systems tray on start-up as you can scan files with the right-click dropdown context menu.

Avoid SpyBot, IMHO it is past its 'sell by' date.

 

I generally agree with the advice above. That is to say, run "one" antivirus program and one only (i.e. MSE). Of the others, I would choose Malwarebytes and I would run it weekly at most. There is such a thing as overkill. You'll probably discover that your "enhanced" programs pick up a few tracking cookies which in general are a low risk anyway.

 

I have used MBAM, it's OK but I had a few too many false-positives with it. At the end of the day it's what you're comfortable with. I think I went through an 'overkill' phase once myself. SpywareBlaster has no scanning ability though & is essentially a globally unique identifier filter.

I would consider WOT & maybe something like Webutation as well.

 

I am not an expert by any means. I am on several message boards and they ALL recommend MBAM. I have never seen it give a false positive. Never heard anybody else claim that it does either. That is usually one of the first programs that you are told to run. Can you give me a example or 2?

 

I ran it for around 6 months (concomitantly with SUPERAntiSpyware) & in that time I had 7 false-positives. I've never had one with SAS. I'm not the only person who has had f/ps with MBAM. I uninstalled MBAM & its logs so I have no record of these, most of them I reported at the time. If I remember I had one f/p which even tried to claim that several system drivers were malware. If I had quarantined them my notebook would probably be a paperweight now! Some even complained about the same experience on their forum.

Some f/ps I even quarantined before eventually returning them to the system. AFAIK MBAM is a little more aggressive & possibly finds more malware overall than SUPERAntiSpyware. Maybe that's why it is recommended so much, many people run both.

I've never had an f/p with SAS.

I'm sure MBAM is effective, but I would not recommend it to someone who had little knowledge of computing &/or the concept of false-positives.

I contracted a trojan once & SAS was the only program to find it on my notebook. It got past SpyBot & Norton.

I only run MSE, SpywareBlaster & SUPERAntiSpyware on my notebook now.

 

Do you know what quarantine means? Most AV/spyware/malware programs will quarantine a virus. If that was a bad thing, they would not do that. Once in quarantine, they are locked in there till deleted completely. MBAM and other programs do the same thing.

Please don't take this wrong as I am not in a contest with you. I like others are here to help and learn...

 

So for my security, I think I'll go with:

Microsoft Security Essentials
Comodo Internet Security
Spyware Blaster
MalwareBytes AntiMalware
Emsisoft AntiMalware
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ad-Aware (since I read that it goes great with spybot S&D)
CCleaner and Slimcleaner.

Just trying to go for as many of the best free programs I can without them slowing my system down. I guess it's best to go with only one program that offers real-time protection otherwise you're liable to have a conflict and slower performances, right?

 

IMHO SpywareBlaster & MSE with an on-demand scanner (SAS, MBAM etc) will be your best bet. Anything else will be superfluous. Of course, it all depends on your platform & system. I thought that Spybot Search & Destroy had problems running on Vista 32 bit, also Ad-Aware was a bit dodgy & I haven't even tried running them on my Win 7 64 bit machine.

You won't know until you try them I suppose though. As I have been telling 'MrBill' I found that MBAM gave me at least seven false-positives over several months of use whereas SUPERAntiSpyware has never given me one false-positive in over three years of use. SAS also discovered a trojan on my notebook that everything else had missed.

I suppose unless you try something you will not know what it is like. I would be wary of downloading rogueware & I really do recommend the WOT (Web Of Trust) plug-in.

You can use it in Firefox, SeaMonkey, Safari, Chrome, Iron, K-Meleon,Opera, Internet Explorer & others.

 

quar·an·tine (kwôrn-tn, kwr-)
n.
1.
a. A period of time during which a vehicle, person, or material suspected of carrying a contagious disease is detained at a port of entry under enforced isolation to prevent disease from entering a country.
b. A place for such detention.
2. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
3. A condition of enforced isolation.
4. A period of 40 days.
tr.v. quar·an·tined, quar·an·tin·ing, quar·an·tines
1. To isolate in or as if in quarantine.
2. To isolate politically or economically.
[Italian quarantina, from quaranta (giorni), forty (days), from Latin quadrgint; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.]

I never mentioned viruses. All of the false-positives were 'claimed' malware (trojan, bots etc), none of them were detected by my AV or SAS (or online scans in fact). That's because they didn't exist & were false-positives.

Or ... if you re-introduce them back to your system, which, if you have ever actually run MBAM or SUPERAntiSpyware for any length of time you would know. The quarantine function is a safeguard peculiarly for false-positives & the prevention of turning your computer into a paperweight by removing essential system drivers or other software that an over-ambitious antimalware scanner has mistaken for malware.

I have been using SAS for nearly three years & I have never had a false-positive with it. It quarantined the one & only trojan I contracted & I reported it (& its GUID) on their forum. It was a known dropper (probably for spam) & was known to the forum. That's why SAS caught it anyway.

I don't understand why you seem to be beleaguering your point then. In fact, I am not sure what your point actually is. I have merely recounted my own personal experiences with MBAM & SAS. All of my statements are personal, but cogent, I believe.

In my experience, MBAM is a perfectly good antimalware scanner, with some good tools, but is unfortunately prone to a few too many (for me anyway) false-positives. I stopped trusting it & therefore decided it was superfluous to requirements.

 

I am not beleaguering the point. I just wanted to know what some of the false positives were.

This is my last post on this. I am sorry you took it the wrong way and got your panties in a wad over nothing.

 

I'm not the one with my knickers in a twist mate, I just told you what my experiences were. It was over 18 months ago & I don't have the files anymore.

 

Ah thanks for the link.

My plan wasn't to use all these programs all the time. I know that would be overkill. I just figured that if I run a few every 2 weeks or so, having several would be good just in case one program picks up something the others don't. I mean as long as having them doesn't negatively impact the performance of my computer, I'd like to have quite a few on hand.

As for the firewall, I have heard lots of great things about the Comodo Firewall and it seems to be highly recommended.

 

Hi VaCcArO, I have read all the info Posted and would advise care in installing more than is necessary.
I use MSE & WOT currently. On one of my comps I have Avast & MBM. On another Avast & Spybot.
I found after trial and error that Symantec (Norton) slowed my comp to a crawl.
Avira has an annoying screen popup encouraging purchase of their Pro AV.
AVG were frustrating at startup.
Commodo was always asking me to approve/disapprove almost everything that happened in the comp.

Bottom line - it's your choice. After installing MSE on 3 comps I have no hassles.
And as Davezilla suggested - WOT which is great when "Googling" as anything with a RED circle is a very dubious site.

Have courage with your choices. Cheers Neil.

 

I know what you mean. I remember on the CD my external DVD drive came with, there was a 30-day trial for Norton. It slowed down my computer significantly.

I had used Comodo about a year ago but I had uninstalled it shortly after because, as you said, it kept asking me to approve/deny every little thing. But now, Comodo is better with that and I can adjust the level of security.

I agree that the ads and pop-ups for Avira and Avast are annoying, which is why I won't use them.

I also have and enjoy the WOT extension for my chrome and firefox browsers.

As you said, it is ultimately my choice which programs I install or don't install. But I like to get people's opinions on the subject and learn as much as I can about the pros and cons.