Trend Micro: Remove All These Other Security Products

From the Trend Micro KB database: You need to remove any of the following programs that may be installed in your computer. Having these products installed together with Trend Micro products could result to loss of Internet connection or slow computer performance.
Symantec Products

• Norton Anti Virus 2005
• Norton Anti Virus 2006
• Norton Anti Virus 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• Norton Internet Security 2005
• Norton Internet Security 2006
• Norton Internet Security 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10
• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.2 Client Only for Vista32
• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.2 Client Only for Vista64
• Norton 360
• Norton 360 64bit
• Norton AntiVirus 2002
• Norton AntiVirus 2003
• Norton AntiVirus 2004
• Norton AntiVirus 2002
• Norton AntiVirus 2003
• Norton AntiVirus 2004
• Norton AntiSpam 2005
• Norton Personal Firewall 2002
• Norton Personal Firewall 2003
• Norton Personal Firewall 2004
• Norton Personal Firewall 2005
• Norton Personal Firewall 2006
• Norton Internet Security 2008 Beta 32-bit /64-bit
• Norton AntiVirus 2008 Beta 32-bit /64-bit
• Norton AntiBot Beta 32-bit /64-bit

McAfee Products

• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005
• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006
• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007
• McAfee VirusScan 2005
• McAfee VirusScan 2006
• McAfee VirusScan 2007
• McAfee Total Protection 2007
• McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise 8.0
• McAfee PC Protection Plus 2007
• McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise 8.5i 32-bit /64-bit
• McAfee Inernet Security 5.02 (En) Retail
• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2004 Ver6.
• McAfee.com Inernet Security Super
• McAfee.com VirusScan Online
• McAfee VirusScan 2004 Ver8.0
• McAfee VirusScan 3.x/4.x for Win9x
• McAfee.com SecurityCenter (Ja) Retail
• McAfee AntiSpyware 2005/2006
• McAfee.com SpyKiller2005
• McAfee Personal Firewall Plus (Ja) Retail/2005/2006
• McAfee Firewall 4.02 (En) Retail
• McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• McAfee VirusScan 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• McAfee Total Protection 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• McAfee PC Protection Plus 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• McAfee Total Protection 2.0 Beta 32-bit /64-bit

Trend Micro

• Trend Micro AntiSpyware 3.x
• Trend Micro House Clean
• Trend Micro AntiVirus
• Trend Micro Internet Security 2005
• Trend Micro Internet Security 2006
• Trend Micro Internet Security 2007
• Trend Micro OfficeScan 5.5
• Trend Micro OfficeScan 6.5
• Trend Micro OfficeScan 7.0
• Trend Micro OfficeScan 7.8
• Trend Micro PC-cillin 2002
• Trend Micro PC-cillin 2003
• Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2004
• TrendMicroPCC15_TAV
• Trend Micro Internet Security VBSE
• Trend Micro Anti-Spyware Client
• Trend Micro Anti-Spam ToolBar OE
• Trend Micro Anti-Spam ToolBar OL

Other Security Vendors

• Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06
  Ad-Aware SE Plus
• Ad-Aware SE Professional
• Ad-Aware 2007 Free/ Pro
• Spybot 1.4
• CA Anti-Virus 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• CA Internet Security Suite 2007
• CA Antispyware 2007
• CA Internet Security Suite 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• CA Personal Firewall 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• CA Anti-Spam 2007 32-bit /64-bit
• Windows Live OneCare 1.5
• Microsoft Windows Defender
• e-frontier VirusKiller2003 Firewall 1.2.1 (Ja) Retail
• e-frontier VirusKiller2005 Personal Firewall
• e-frontier VirusKiller2003
• e-frontier Virus Killer 2005
• eTrust Antivirus r7
• eTrust Antivirus r8
• eTrust EZ Armor 2005
• eTrust PestPatrol AntiSpyware 5.0
• eTrust PestPatrol AntiSpyware 8.0
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Pro
• Kaspersky Personal Security Suite
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2006 32-bit/64-bit
• Kaspersky Internet Security 2006 32-bit/64-bit
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal (EN) ver.5.0.388
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 Beta
• Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 Beta
• Panda PLATINUM Anti Virus 2005 with TRUEPREVENT
• Panda PLATINUM Internet Security 2005 with TRUEPREVENT
• Panda Titanium 2006 Antivirus + Antispyware
• Panda Titanium 2006 Antivirus + Antispyware
• Panda Internet Security 2007
• Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007
• Panda Antivirus 2007
• Panda Anti-Virus with firewall 2008
• Panda Internet Security 2008
• Panda Anti-Virus 2008
• Tiny Personal FireWall 4.5
• Tiny Personal FireWall 5.0
• Tiny Firewall 64
• Tiny Personal FireWall 2005
• Tiny Personal FireWall 2005 Pro
• ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite
• ZoneAlarm with Antivirus
• ZoneAlarm Pro 2.x & 3.x & 4.x
• ZoneAlarm Pro Plus 3.x
• Zone Alarm Anti-Spyware 2006
• Zone Alarm Anti-Virus 2007 32bit
• Zone Alarm Internet Security 2007 32bit
• ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7.1.078.000 (Beta Version for Vista-32bit)
• Zone Alarm Anti-Spyware 2007
• Zone Alarm Pro 2007
• INTERMUTE AdSubtract PRO
• INTERMUTE SpySubtract PRO
• AVG AntiVirus\Anti-Malware\Internet Security 2007 32bit
• AVG AntiVirus\Anti-Malware\Internet Security 2007 64bit
• AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5
• BitDefender Internet Security 10
• BitDefender Anti-Virus Plus v10 32bit
• BitDefender Anti-Virus v10 32bit
• BitDefender Internet Security v10 32bit
• BitDefender Total Security 2008 Beta 1
• F-Secure Anti-Virus 2007
• F-Secure Internet Security 2007
• F-Secure Internet Security 2006
• F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006
• Avast! 4 Pro/Home 32bit
• Avast! 4 Pro/Home 64bit
• NOD 32 Anti Virus 32bit
• NOD 32 Anti Virus 64bit
• ESET(NOD32) Smart Security Beta 1a
• Spy Sweeper 5.0
• Spy Sweeper 5.2
• Spy Sweeper 5.3
• Spy Sweeper 5.2 with Anti-Virus
• Spy Sweeper 5.3 with Anti-Virus
• Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1
• Kerio Personal Firewall 4
• Kerio WinRoute Firewall 6
• CYBERsitter 9.0
• PC Tools AntiVirus 3.0 for Windows
• PC Tools AntiVirus 3.1 for Windows 32bit
• PC Tools AntiVirus 3.2 for Windows 64bit
• Sophos Anti-virus 6.0/6.5 32bit
• Sophos Anti-virus 6.5 64bit
• Virus Doctor 2004
• Virus Doctor Ver.9
• Virus Protector V4 Retail
• Virus Security 2004 / 2005
• VirusSecurity2006
• Virus Protector V4 Retail
• Virus Security 2004 / 2005
• VirusSecurity2006
• V3 VirusBlock InternetSecurity 2005
• V3 VirusBlock InternetSecurity 2006
• Spyware Killer Pro
• Spyware Blaster 3.5
• Spyware Hunter 2.7
• Sygate Personal Firewall 5.5
• Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.5
• Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.6
• BlackICE 3.6
• BlackICE PC Protection
• Spy Catcher 2006
• Spy Sweeper 4.5
• PCGATE Personal 2.6 (Ja) Retail
• Outpost Personal Firewall Free & Pro & Pro v2.7.493.416
• SG Anti!SPY(trial)
• Norman Personal Firewall 4.0
• Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0
• Folder Lock5.7.5
• K7 Total Security
• NEC Inter Channel v3 Virus Block Internet Security
• Final Security 2.5
• Earthlink's Parental Controls2005
• Kingsoft Internet Security 2006 (JA)
• Pest Patrol 4.2
• Virus Chaser Retail
• Digiturbo VirusDoctor
• FortiClient Host Security
• Dr.Web for Windows (version 4.33)
• Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic 7.0

The following Products were included on the competitor list starting December 21, 2007.

• Kingsoft Internet Security 2007 32bit
• Kingsoft Internet Security 2007 64bit
• Norton Antivirus Corporate edition
• Norton Confidential 2008
• Symantec Client Security 10
• Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5 32bit
• Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5 64bit
• V3 VirusBlock Internet Security 2007
• V3 VirusBlock Internet Security 2007 Platinum
• SpyZero 2007

The following applications has been removed from our competitor list.

• Spy Doctor

More details @ Donna's Security Flash

 

But in truth... is there anything surprising here? I would imagine that Symantec would make a similar statement: remove all competitors' programs. I know that F-Secure required that I removed "everything" without exception. So what is the surprise?

 

Heh...talk about putting all of your eggs in one basket. Looks like I won't be installing Trend Micro's Internet Security any time soon.

I do not know whether Symantec's Norton Internet Security suite would recommend removing all competitors' software or not.

However, I recently uninstalled Symantec's Norton SystemWorks 2006 (had to use the Norton Removal Tool too) and then installed the newest version of Norton SystemWorks (NSW) Standard Edition. During installation, NSW detected WinPatrol 2007 and ZoneAlarm Pro and recommended I remove them. Said nothing about any of the several other security apps I have installed though.

I installed NSW without uninstalling WinPatrol 2007 and ZoneAlarm Pro and I don't think there are any apparent conflicts as a result. Time will tell, I guess. I did see several alerts from WinPatrol and ZoneAlarm while I was installing NSW but I promptly allowed all changes/actions to go through.

I suspect Symantec might want people to uninstall WinPatrol and ZoneAlarm before installing NSW so they don't interfere with installation and/or create confusion for the end users (and create support headaches for Symantec).

After installing NSW, I configured NSW to Ignore Spyware Protection (as I have Spy Sweeper performing memory-resident protection) and Ignore Windows Automatic Update (because I have Windows Automatic Update set to notify instead of automatically downloading/installing critical updates). I think configuring NSW to "Ignore Spyware Protection" might disable any memory-resident spyware protection offered by NSW but I am not certain yet. Perhaps Michael York will clarify that for me.

NSW does detect when I shut down ZoneAlarm Pro and alerts me about not having an active firewall. So at least that part of NSW works properly as far as I know.

I have not experimented yet with enabling NSW's "Spyware Protection" feature (turning the "Ignore" off) and then shutting down Spy Sweeper. NSW might simply monitor whether resident spyware protection is active or not (similar to the way NSW monitors the firewall protection).

NSW Standard Edition does not have a full-fledged firewall though it can be configured to block/allow UDP and/or TCP traffic on certain ports from all computers or certain ones.

I am not certain whether NSW Standard Edition has full-fledged resident spyware protection or not.

The box for NSW Standard Edition states in its list of features,

NOTE: Nothing is said on the box about detecting and removing detected spyware.

 

Different strokes for....

At our work we've used Symantec's suite exclusively for a year now. No issues whatsoever. For two years I used F-Secure's suite... no issues. I know I had no issues because I finally disabled it and did some online scans... nada. Then I downloaded and installed several other malware programs... clean as a whistle.

It seems to me that we can get a bit paranoid about this security thing. I've used CounterSpy for three years. When I was running F-Secure I only used CounterSpy on manual scans. In other words, I disabled the active protection. It never found anything other than "one" (count it...) "one" tracking cookie. I've no qualms whatsoever in dumping a lot of programs that simply duplicate what other more inclusive programs do (i.e. Ad-aware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster... dumped them all). CounterSpy does it all for me but not on active protection. TrendMicro is a reasonable security suite as is F-Secure (both of which I can have for free... one through my ISP and one via my wife's new laptop which carries three licenses). In fact, I'm about to install TrendMicro. I'll let you know how things turn out a month from now (but I already know the results).

 

I'm sorry, it's one thing to recommend to remove some software which is likely to negatively impact your products operation, I think that's a given for almost any software.

But that list is just so obscenely long it borders on the ridiculous. I had links for TM software as an affiliate on my site. Not any more.

 

Don't be sorry. You're doing what you believe is best for you and for those who come to your site. We simply see things differently on the matter of security. As for Trend Micro, I would venture to say that if you were to contact F-Secure (as one example) they would essentially give you the same list. Try it. And should they do this, which I know they will, then in all fairness you should remove them as well. In my opinion, these "other" programs (particularly the freebies) did a great job in years past. But many former AV-only companies have expanded their coverage today and what they offer more or less duplicates the work of these others. So it becomes a matter of whether you want half a dozen stand-alones or one security suite. In my case, I opt for the security suite and "one" stand-alone (CounterSpy) which as I mentioned before, I run (on demand) but not in active protection so that there is no conflict.

 

Hi James
What you say is true, for the person that is using the Internet wisely.
But you know as well as any, that not all people do so. (Look how busy the Virus and Spyware removal forum is)
When you start getting into P2P file sharing, because you want something for nothing or start visiting elicit sites that's when there's trouble.
Even at that, look what happened at MySpace, people were getting nailed just by visiting someones blog and this is getting more and more wide spread as blogs are becoming more popular.

There is also a chance that you can pick something up before the vender's know about the infection and add it to the dat files. or a different variance of a infection.
Kaspersky may know about it before Trend, or McAfee before Norton and be updated a hour or day before the others.

No, I believe it is wrong for Trend or any others to forbid the use of other protection, be it a scanner or real time as long as there is no conflict between programs.
When vender's start that just for the $$ so you will use only their product. Then the developers of these infections will really start getting the upper hand because they are united and the virus companies are divided just for that extra $.

Geri

 

Hi Geri

I understand what you are saying. When I posted my views, they applied solely to me. I can't extend them to anyone else since I don't know how others use the internet. Given that I don't visit elicit sites nor do P2P sharing and given that I don't visit sites like MySpace and FaceBook and do very, very limited surfing, the odds of my getting an infection of some sort are very small. The fact is, in the eleven years I've been online, I've had one infection and that nine years ago when I didn't know any better. Oh... there's always a possibility that I could visit the wrong site at some future point but that's a chance I can live with. I simply don't want a horde of security programs on my computer. In the past they've never found anything anyway other than a few tracking cookies which have minimal impact.

As for Trend Micro (and let's include F-Secure since they have the exact same requirement), I'm not convinced it is entirely for financial purposes. I guess I'm either very naive or more euphemistically... not as suspicious of their motivation in recommending these other programs be removed. And let's be serious about this: the list given was ridiculously long and did not need to be so since it's a given that you are not going to be running two dozen different anti-virus programs at the same time. We can pretty much delete from that list all the major anti-virus programs and simply deal with malware and spyware programs (i.e. Spybot, Ad-aware and so forth). That will drastically reduce the length of the list and make it more realistic. Now my contention is that Trend Micro (or F-Secure) does a great job at protecting against viruses. Both provide reasonable firewalls. The only real issues are spam, parental controls and spyware. Since I don't need to worry about parental control I can eliminate this. Since Thunderbird has adequate measures (as does my ISP) in place to protect me from e-mail problems, I can pretty much eliminate that. That leaves only spyware. CounterSpy is the best in my opinion (and CNET's) and I run it on demand so that its active protection (which is turned off) will not conflict with what Trend Micro or F-Secure offers. For me... this is all the protection I need... along with common sense.

But I re-iterate...this is my preferred way of protecting myself and I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone else since I don't know their circumstances. And really... by going online .. period... we all take a certain calculated risk. It's just a given. But we try to minimize that risk as much as we can. I find that fewer programs (but ones that I know and can trust from past experience) work best for me and my set-up.

All the best.

 

James do you have a link you can share that F-Secure mandates removal of other security software to such extent as TM does? I'd love to see it.

 

Sorry but no. You'll have to contact them and ask. My F-Secure comes through my ISP (Charter). I used it for a year before switching over to BitDefender Internet Security (which by the way, also demanded that "all" other security programs bar none, be removed... I specifically asked whether I could use Ad-aware, Spyware Blaster and Spybot and was told... no... under no circumstances should "any" other anti-spyware/malware/virus programs be used in conjunction with BitDefender 2008 Internet Security). I had spoken on several occasions with tech support at Charter and asked whether I could run these other programs on demand and not simply in the background and was told.. no... they will pick up things that are crucial to F-Secure's operation and compromise it. In fact, they would pit one against the other creating conflict and a slowdown of my computer. So, there you have it from three different companies (and I suspect more will follow... i.e. ESET's NOD32 Security suite). It's not just Trend Micro...it's likely all of them. And frankly, I don't see a problem with this. As I said, it's more a matter of preference: some folks opt for many standalones doing different jobs and some for suites doing the same thing. I opt for the latter (but have used standalones in the past). I've had no problems using these by themselves but did have an issue when I attempted to run CounterSpy in active mode.

So... why not contact F-Secure, BitDefender and NOD32 and ask them whether they advise uninstalling other security programs "if" one opts to use their internet security suites? I know you will find the exact same recommendations that Trend Micro have given.

 

If I'm understanding you correctly, it was your ISP that told you you could not run anything but what they offered, correct? That's not quite like saying I spoke to 'F-Secure' or 'Bit Defender'. The ISP tech is gonna tell you what he reads from the manual they give him, end of story. Of course they don't want you to use anything else because anything that's not in the manual, they won't be able to handle.

I'm going to peruse the sites you mentioned to see if I can find anything like what TM has publicly posted.

If I can't find anything relating to program conflicts then I'll drop an email to each.

I for one am doubting they will supply me with such an expansive all inclusive list.

 

Hi James

I can understand that. because it can get overwhelming.
But what got me was the fact that I could scan with Ad-Aware delete anything it found and then scan with SpyBot S/D and it would pick up things Ad-Aware didn't find...or vise-versa, and then do a extensive scan with my WebRoot SpySweeper and find more.

This showed me that not one program picks up everything,
I like SpySweeper it's definitions are in the hundreds of thousands...200,000 + last I seen I believe, yet Ad-Aware would pick up something that it didn't.

Ad-Aware and SpyBot are light weight tools...they take up little space and resources, used as a scanner only they will pick up most malware on a system and clean it all for free, that's why we recommend them.

Like you say each person has his own preferences and depending on ones Internet and surfing habbits that should dictate what one needs to be safe.
If you play risky, which alot do, you better have the stuff to protect you as much as possible. and not be surprised when the inevitable happens.

Geri

 

I "have" spoken directly with BitDefender and can say unequivocally that they told me I "had to" uninstall every other program (not even run them on demand). As for F-Secure, it's true... my ISP told me that this was the information given them from F-Secure so it was given to me indirectly. As I mentioned earlier, your list is terribly inflated since no one in his right mind would operate all of those programs. You would choose one antivirus not a dozen and so forth. It seems to me that my earlier post makes perfect sense. The only way to find this out is to write to F-Secure and ESET and ask point blank whether you can run Spybot and Ad-aware etc. along with their internet security suites. See for yourself. It's very unfair to put Trend Micro in this category all alone and label it as some sort of odd-ball company demanding this removal when in fact, most other security suites would require the same.

 

This has never been my experience, Geri (and I'm not prone to exaggeration). When I scan with CounterSpy (which in the past I have always scan with first "when I had Spybot and Ad-aware also on my computer), if it found anything (which was seldom), nothing was ever found by either of the other programs. It simply made no sense to keep them after a year of finding nothing. The only program that appeared to find anything (and as I mentioned, that was precious little) was CS. I've been a year without Ad-aware and Spybot and I've no intentions of putting them back on my computer. I've also run online scans (Housecall) at various times (just checking) and found nothing. The suite and CS do all that is needed for me. I don't make any recommendations for anyone else, not knowing their online habits, but for me... these other programs are superfluous. I simply don't need them.

All the best.

 

I'll be emailing those companies about this policy.

F-Secure only says not to run two avs or firewalls on their site.

No mention naming a hundred other competitors products, most of which are run day in and day on systems all over the Net with no problems, TM is absurd in their recommendation and until I see more vendors say similar I'll stand by my assertions.

Emails going to both BitDefender and F-Secure.

Here is the part that bugs me the most aside from the obvious, they don't say the apps will conflict at all, they just say 'remove them' or you may not have any Net connection and poor performance.

Lose my connection? Poor performance?

The later I can perhaps see, as we all know many of these system suites are resource hogs to the extreme. Not to mention they rarely if ever do as good a job as stand alone applications.


But suggesting that if any of the products listed, used in conjunction with TM products will make your Net connection go away is just plain bad advice, and if you ask me, it would scare me if I stumbled across that information.

Who wants a vendors software on your system if theres a chance it's going to break something if it's on board with a hundred other different applications?

Someone wanna enlighten me on how SpywareBlaster is going to cause someones machine to lose a connection? Ad-Aware? Spybot? Performance hit from having SpywareBlaster? Any of those? Excluding running multiple 'active' monitors, like Ad-Watch or Spybot and similar things. Which of course had they thought more bout informing users rather than trying to scare them would have left them much better off.

Rather than explain to users possible conflicts with other security related software, which is what a vendor ought to do, not to mention test all their apps to see how well their products play with other apps, they decided to just whack anything they could find which may conflict and essentially bully their way onto the users machine.

Not exactly responsible IMHO.

I'll post back when either of the two mentioned vendors reply to my email.

 

Email sent to each:

 

Your letter is a reasonable one. The only thing I wish you had added is to clarify that you mean their security suites (as opposed to simply their anti-virus programs). But I'm sure they'll decipher what information you want. I'll be interested in hearing their response myself. Thanks.

 

The main reason I didn't make it specific to system suites was because so much of what they say to remove were not system suites. Had they done that I would have been more inclined to make it more specific. They chose to include all sorts of software that just simply wouldn't in all likelihood have the impact of losing ones Net connection. Performance is entirely another thing.

 

Makes sense. I follow your line of reasoning. Okay. Keep us updated (and I'll prepare to eat crow should I be required to do so [but I won't like it]).