Why cannot install 2 anti-virus software in one machine??

[Matt]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Please advise. Thanks!!

 

[Sunny]

Who is "me" ?
I have 3 PCs (WinME and WinXP) all running Norton a/v 2003 and AVG without
problems.

 

[eveversion4]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Please advise. Thanks!!

I know that sometimes two anti-virus programs running on your system can
bog it down by using alot of resources like memory and processor clock
cycles. If you have a newer machine with lots of processing power and
memory, I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal if you don't mind them
eating up your resources!! Personally, my poor old system and its
software setup eats enough resources already, I'm sticking with one
anti-virus program for now.

My two cents,

eve

 

[Pop Rivet]

You can INSTALL as many antiviruis programs as you wish.
The problems may arise when you let more than one of them
RUN at the same time.
In other words, you could run, say, Norton with all of its
features and testing functions, and as long as none of your
other programs ran at the same time, there would be no
problems. So, you CAN safely run ONE of them all the time,
and then just use the others now and than to do manual virus
scans. So0metimes one av prog will find the virus patterns
for testing in other av programs, so you do have to be alert
to that so that you don't let one av prog remove part of
another av prog, thinking it's a virus when it's only a
normal part of the program.

All that said, av programs today are good enough that if you
have one of the major ones it's all you need. There really
is no need to run two of them, as is the case in adware
stoppers, etc.

Pop

 

[Shane]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Please advise. Thanks!!

Others have dealt with 'the rationale'.

In early days of experimenting with AV in XP, PC-Cillin would not install
because Norton AntiVirus was present.

I got round it by exporting the HKLM\Software\Symantec key from the
registry, then deleting that key. PC-Cillin no longer recognised NAV as
present and installed no problem. Then I merged the exported key back and
both NAV and PC-Cillin thereafter ran OK.

Shane

 

[Mike]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Can you please explain first what is the rationale for needing more than
one anti-virus package on a single machine?

 

[Frederic Bonroy]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

You can. You simply shouldn't use them simultaneously.

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Oh, there are of course cases where some AV programs refuse to install
if they find that a competing product is already present. There is no
rationale. It's either miserable programming or marketing. Or both.
Use decent AV software and you shouldn't have that problem. I have
several AV programs on this computer and no problems. Though most of
them are command line versions.

 

[Frederic Bonroy]

Can you please explain first what is the rationale for needing more than
one anti-virus package on a single machine?

Easy: no AV program is perfect. Two programs see more than one.

 

[Shane]

Can you please explain first what is the rationale for needing more than
one anti-virus package on a single machine?

Because no single AV is 100% effective at recognising/cleaning (known)
viruses and different products tend to see/fail-to-see different viruses, so
what one misses another may catch.

It's a good idea as long as alternatives are run as on-demand and as long as
it doesn't lead to complacency.


Shane

 

[BoB]

I know that sometimes two anti-virus programs running on your system can
bog it down by using alot of resources like memory and processor clock
cycles. If you have a newer machine with lots of processing power and
memory, I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal if you don't mind them
eating up your resources!! Personally, my poor old system and its
software setup eats enough resources already, I'm sticking with one
anti-virus program for now.

My two cents,

eve

I had seven AVs installed on my old 300mhz machine but thinned
them down to the best four now on my 1.7ghz.

'Installed' and 'running' are not the same thing.

Since I wouldn't use McAfee or Norton if they were free, I cannot
speak to the operation of those AV's. It is common knowledge that
for many users, they cause more problems than any other commercial
or free antivirus.

Any AV that will not permit another AV to be installed is worthless,
since 'NO' AV can have 'near perfect' detection all the time. Multiple
AVs improve your chances of avoiding the very newest virus. Until
'yesterdays' virus is incorporated into the AV definitions, it cannot
be detected. This is true for all Av's.

Two or more antivirus should not be 'running' at the same time.
Conflict is inevitable as they cannot access the same file at the
same time. I had no resource problem with multiple AVs installed on
my old, slow machine or now, because only one AV as ever in use at
the same time.

Personally, I would never run an AV in real-time as dependence on
'never-perfect' AV's tends to lessen your awareness. Safehex
practices added to AV protection will make your computer as close
to 'safe' as you can get.

The main points of Safehex are:

Read your emails in text only, not html. Don't be click-happy and
open uninvited attachments in your emails. Save attachments to your
HD and scan them before opening, if you have determine that it is
something that was requested. The less confident you are that an
attachment is virus free, the more AV's you should use to confirm
that is 'most-probably' safe.

Scan every download, from any source, before opening the program.

http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html

A low-resource, free program that can alert you 'prior' to trojans
etc, being fully installed and functional is WinPatrol:

http://www.winpatrol.com/winpatrol.html

I never recommend how people should spend their money so I avoid
discussing commercial AVs. However, from the many free AV's, I have
selected these three for my use.

http://www.avast.com Avast
http://www.grisoft.com AVG
http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/dos/ F-prot for DOS

HTH,

BoB

 

[FromTheRafters]

... av programs today are good enough that if you
have one of the major ones it's all you need. There really
is no need to run two of them, as is the case in adware
stoppers, etc.

True, there is no *need*. But then again, it is advantageous
to have second or third opinions when an alert surfaces. It
is also good to have two for the same reasons you suggest
it is desirable for adware removal or defense, in that what
one might miss, the other might not.

 

[Conny]

Why a computer cannot install 2 or more anti-virus software?

For example, we cannot install both Mcafee and Norton anti virus software
in the same computer. What is the rationale?

Please advise. Thanks!!

Why have two drivers in one car in one seat?
Or 4 pair of shoes on your feet.........?

 

[FromTheRafters]

Why have two drivers in one car in one seat?
Or 4 pair of shoes on your feet.........?

...or two eyes where having only one is sufficient for seeing.

If one fails to do what it is supposed to, you have a backup.
Having a diversity of engine and definiition sets will help to
mitigate damage that a failure of one could incur.

 

[Maebhe Ryan]

Easy: no AV program is perfect. Two programs see more than one.

And occasionally fight each other.....

Regards,
°****°Maebhe

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

And occasionally fight each other.....

Used to be 'quite often', but maybe they are smarter now. AV programs
tend to have/contain/reference lots of virus signatures .. under some
circumstances these can look like viruses to some other AV program
(hopefully they don't get confused by their OWN signature files. 8>.).

 

[BoB]

You can. You simply shouldn't use them simultaneously.


Oh, there are of course cases where some AV programs refuse to install
if they find that a competing product is already present. There is no
rationale. It's either miserable programming or marketing. Or both.
Use decent AV software and you shouldn't have that problem. I have
several AV programs on this computer and no problems. Though most of
them are command line versions.

I saw this today in one of the forums:
~~~~~~~~~
Since I received so much help, I feel obligated to update everyone on my
initial problem downloading updates to SpywareBlaster. I finally "fixed"
the problem and successfully updated both SpwareBlaster and
SpywareGuard. I had tried everything regarding ZoneAlarm firewall rules,
and a whole list of things too numerous to mention. Although I had
already done this once, I decided to go back again and uninstall and
clean up any old programs no longer used or previously discarded. I
found Hijack Browser Blaster (?) or something like that, and also AVG
antivirus. I had forgotten about both of these. I thought I had gotten
rid of AVG when I learned you shouldn't run 2 different AV's. (I have
Norton AV.) After uninstalling these, and then deleting any accompanying
files I could find, I once again ran a registry cleaner, CheckDisk, and
Defrag. It worked! I still don't know whether it was the browser hijack
blaster or AVG remnants causing my problem. Any comments?
MikeF.
~~~~~~~~

Norton, most likely, saw a 'remnant' of AVG and caused the problem.
Miserable programming forced by marketing, probably.

Here's another from one of today's threads:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I know of no other AV that is so bad about allowing competition.
What a pathetic way to do business.

BoB

 

[Buddy B buddyb]

If one fails to do what it is supposed to, you have a backup.
Having a diversity of engine and definiition sets will help to
mitigate damage that a failure of one could incur.

Particularly if one says there is or a suspicion of a unknown
virus/trojan and the other doesn`t pick up anything.
Regards Buddy B

 

[Bullwinkel J. Moose]

Competition. Both programs are useless. There are many free AV programs that
don't require you to uninstall other programs. Be wary of those that do.