Security software conflicts

I have a perplexing question. We all know that no single anti-virus or anti-trojan program can be 100% effective at ensuring that every single virus or trojan has been detected and removed from your system. Therefore, using more than one anti-virus or anti-trojan program is recommended. My question is: How does one choose which ones to use? I have found that some anti-virus installations do NOT peacefully coexist with others. I have tried installing multiple instances of these programs only to have my system royally locked up. I know for instance that Kaspersky (while a great program) does NOT like to be installed on the same computer as Norton. While Norton, probably far and away the most popular, I dont think it is the most thorough and best all around program. Hence, I feel better scanning my system with 2 or more detection/cleaning programs. But again, how does one know what is going to coexist and what is going to ***** things up? It would be nice if there were a spreadsheet or a grid showing which were compatable and which weren't. Thanks for shedding any light.

Scott M

 

spirit523--Two votes against running two AV programs
http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2003/s1407/38s07/38s07.asp
http://www.techsoup.org/forums/index.cfm?fuseaction=read&forum=2029&id=45849&cid=117
and one pretty much agreed as against
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg0114053123615.html
Could not find any "for" votes.

 

Hello Scott,

One way to use multiple AV's is to use one of them as a backup on-demand scanner only, and one as the resident used for real time protection. And that depends on the AV's used - Norton is so pervasive, that it doesn't take kindly to others. In the case of Norton, you would have to shut down every resident function it has if it were to be used as the backup scanner - something I don't know whether it would allow and still function at all.

My question is: How does one choose which ones to use? I have found that some anti-virus installations do NOT peacefully coexist with others
I don't know of any "list" of what co-exists, you can ask at different forums, I know people do this, and see what their combo's are. One forum: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php

As Jim pointed out, having two AV's active at the same time is asking for trouble.

Regards - Charles

 

I used to use both Norton and Etrust (only Etrust now). I had Norton disabled and used Etrust for the real time scanning. I never had an ounce of trouble with it. The last version of Norton I had was 2000 but it wasn't much different from todays versions in how it stretched it's tentacles into every part of the system. I myself, wouldn't be afraid to try it now. The next person has to decide for him/her self though.