Anti virus / Spyware?Trial and Error?

[winddancer]

I have Spybot Search and Destroy , Windows Defender on my PC and they seem to
do a good job although I find Defender abit difficult to understand at times
with whether I should be Permiting or Denying some changes :-/
I use to use AVG free then changed to Avast (which picked up virus and
spyware that AVG did not).Now after reading some veiws in here I have got
Panda 2008 on my system , it also picked up Bugs that Avast did not..but my
system is seeming slower than before...what to do?? Im thinking of starting
XP from scratch (what a headache) or trying a different lot of Anti virus etc
all together--Avira--Kasperksy--CA--Avast--AVG--never ending list it seems
..Then its back to trial and error...Or maybe its New PC time :-/

 

[Jerry]

You should not have more than one anti-vrus program running at the same
time.

 

[winddancer]

I only have Panda IS 2008 anti-virus then Windows Defender and Spybot S/D for
Malware/Spyware etc....do these clash??......If I try a different Anti-virus
I uninstall the other first.....Thanx for any answers/suggestions

 

[peter]

You have a SUITE of programs under the heading Panda IS 2008.
A suite like this does more background checking/scanning/etc which does slow
your system down.
An Anti-virus like AVG or Avast does nothing but check for virus/malware and
as such does not slow the system
down as much.
Maybe you should try this feature of your Suite
New! Optimized PC performance system.
Panda Tuneup: helps optimize operating system performance.
Sometimes your computer may operate erratically or slow down for no apparent
reason. In these cases, the first thing to do is to use the system's
optimization and maintenance tools. Panda Internet Security 2008 helps you
access these utilities directly. First it cleans out all unnecessary
components (removing cookies, temporary files, items in the recycle bin,
etc.) and then defragments the disk to optimize performance. Keep your
computer in top shape

pk

 

[Anteaus]

I would avoid Panda, along with Norton and possibly McAfee. These are the
ones that invariably give trouble.

After Panda's been on a computer you may need to run lspfix.exe over it, as
it can damage the TCP/IP stack.

http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Most other AV programs seem to work reasonably well.

Though, the biggest security problem on computers is the use of insecure
software, particularly Internet Explorer versions prior to seven. If you
insist on using such software you WILL be hit by malware, no matter what
precautions you take. Upgrade - or better, switch to a Mozilla browser.