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General discussion

virus scanners

Apr 5, 2004 8:51PM PDT

Can one have two virus scanners going at the same time?
I presently have Norton 2003 and would like to add AVG virus scanner also for more protection.

Discussion is locked

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Re:virus scanners
Apr 5, 2004 9:25PM PDT

It's not really going to increase your protection level, and most likely the two are going to fight with one another over who gets to scan the files being accessed.

Not to mention anti-virus vendors of late have decided that they're each going to name every new virus/worm something different, so they both might come up saying they've detected a different virus/worm in the same file, when it's really the same one.

Just pick one and stick with it.

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Re:virus scanners
Apr 7, 2004 5:11AM PDT

gmatson,

For most computer configurations, actually "running" two antivirus programs will cause problems. In fact, the major brand AVP's require that all other antivirus programs be uninstalled BEFORE installing there product.

That said, a few individuals will install a secondary antivirus but disable it so they're not running at the same time. AVG is a good one to install as a secondary as it doesn't seem to impede upon the other programs much. When you want to scan with the secondary antivirus, disable the primary program and do a scan with the other program as a backup.

Just my personal preference here, but because installing two antivirus programs together can cause conflicts, I prefer to install the antivirus program of my choice as the primary program, then use an "Online" antivirus scanner as the secondary scan. It provides a good "backup" scanner and doesn't require them both to be installed. Here are just a few options for free online scanners:

Norton/Symantec(Scanning Only)
http://security1.norton.com/us/home.asp?j=1&venid=sym&langid=us&plfid=20&pkj=BBZDRWLPHLGDYWDOFNZ

Trend Micro's Housecall(Scanning plus Deletion Of Infected Files)
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/

Panda Antivirus(Scanning plus Deletion of Infected Files)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

McAfee Free Scan(Scanning Only)
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp

Hope this helps.

Grif