how many antivirus programs on PC?

[news.onet.pl]

Hello,
I have simple question. I have Windows XP with AntiVir 6.26 installed.
I read somewhere that I should not have more than one anti-virus
applications on my computer. Is it true?
/RAM/

 

[Guest]

That is true.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Partially! You can/should only have ONE anti-virus program which is set to
actively shield, scan and protect your PC. You can have others installed but
should only really be set to be used as a scan on demand basis.

 

[JS]

AV Software, Firewall (Zone Alarm - free version), CounterSpy, BHODemon,
Windows Defender and Startup Monitor all running in the background.

Also use Spybot Search & Destroy as well as Ad-Aware SE Personal edition.

JS

 

[John Barnett MVP]

One anti virus application is more than enough. Start adding more and they
could conflict. The same applies to firewalls. If you use a third party
firewall make sure the windows firewall is disabled. Zone Alarm will disable
the windows firewall during its installation. two applications of anti virus
or firewall 'does not' mean double protection.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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[Dave B.]

That's nice, but what does it have to do with the question?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

news.onet.pl wrote

I have simple question. I have Windows XP with AntiVir 6.26
installed. I read somewhere that I should not have more than one
anti-virus applications on my computer. Is it true?

AV Software, Firewall (Zone Alarm - free version), CounterSpy,
BHODemon, Windows Defender and Startup Monitor all running in the
background.
Also use Spybot Search & Destroy as well as Ad-Aware SE Personal
edition.

The question was,
"I read somewhere that I should not have more than one anti-virus
applications on my computer. Is it true?"

You have listed Firewall, AntiVirus and several AntiSpyware products.
1, 1, many.

So yes. The answer is that having two "active" antivirus products running
at one time could cause issues.

Such as a scan-loop that causes your machine to become intolerable. Since
AV software usually scans on access, if one of the AV softwares is doing a
full scan, the other sees the files being accessed and scans them, the first
notices something just accessed that file and scans it, the second notices
something just accessed that file and scans it...

 

[JS]

Your correct, only one AV software package is enough.
The rest is over kill and not required to answer the question.

JS

 

[JS]

There is interaction and it does to some extent slow certain functions down
(defrag, image backups). The apps I mentioned have little to no effect on
normal use of this particular PC, although is does slow up the boot process.
Windows Defender and CounterSpy are similar products and I am comparing them
to see what if any difference there is.

JS

 

[MAP]

Windows Defender and CounterSpy are
similar products and I am comparing them to see what if any
difference there is.

JS

Their is no comparision, dump windows defender.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hello,
I have simple question. I have Windows XP with AntiVir 6.26 installed.
I read somewhere that I should not have more than one anti-virus
applications on my computer. Is it true?

No, it's not true.

What you should not do is run more than one anti-virus program at once,
scanning whatever you do.

However it's fine to have more than one installed, and use others beside the
main one to do scans.