Using new antivirus program. Must I uninstall old one?

This site says only use one anti virus program. So do I uninstall the old one, or do I just disable Active Protection and never scan for viruses? I don't want to uninstall it.

 

Uninstall it.

 

Thank you. But I have one more question. Do I have to uninstall it before installing the new one?

 

Yes, otherwise you will run into a conflict problem with both antivirus's running. Hope that helps

 

>> This site says only use one anti virus program. So do I uninstall the old one, or do I just disable Active Protection and never scan for viruses? I don't want to uninstall it. <<

First of all, there are two types of anti-virus programs. Those that users invoke explicitly are called 'on-demand' scanners and those that are always active in the background are called 'on-access' resident scanners.

Do you mean you simply want to have two anti-virus programs installed or do you mean that you want to have two AV programs running simultaneously? The reason that I ask this is because there is a huge difference in the "accurate" answer between having simply two AV programs "installed" and having two antivirus programs installed and "running" side-by-side.

Before you make any final choice regarding this matter you should know that having two different antivirus programs installed and running side-by-side can potentially cause major problems on your computer system. My own view is that it is almost always a very, very BAD idea to attempt to run two entirely different 'on-access' resident scanner anti-virus products simultaneously. It is simply an accident waiting to happen.

I can tell you without any doubt (because I tried to do this in the past) that running two antivirus products at the same time is potentially risky, and can even be even be very hazardous to your system. Also, having more than one antivirus program running and "active in memory" will most definitely unnecessarily use far more additional resources; adversely affecting your access to the files and causing overall system slowdowns.

There isn't a single antivirus program website on the web that advises doing this and for good reason - it's dangerous! The reason is, when two antivirus programs boot up together and then; after a while, start scanning and looking intruders, all sorts of problems can happen ranging from system freezes and program crashes to operating system lockups and persistent "blue screens" or boot up stop events.

Most of the popular anti-virus products (when running together) will "fight for control" over the users' machine, and this conflict that will create slowing the system speed as well as other serious compatibility problems if the user tries to have two anti-virus programs scanning at the same time. This can create registry conflicts as well as causing false virus alerts - or worse, missing alerts entirely!

Additionally, many of these types of programs simply do not "play nice" or work well with each other. Unfortunately, the only thing many of these types of security applications seem to detest more than potentially harmful viruses - is other antivirus applications running simultaneously together with them. Also, not all AV programs can be installed as secondary scanners, and sometimes installing separate AV programs will cause a conflict or the program's installer will even try to 'uninstall' any other anti-virus programs during the installation.

Final Note: Whatever "feel-good" benefits users may believe running two antivirus applications simultaneously might bring potential them; the pitfalls clearly outweigh the benefits, in my opinion.

Therefore, my advice would be to pick one (or the other) to use and then use Windows Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the one that you do not want to use anymore. However if you decide to keep both AVs installed; make sure that you use only one of the AV programs is activated as resident because only one of them should be active in memory at a time.

Good Luck!

 

Good answer

 

@ COMPUABLE:

I don't agree with that, COMPUABLE. I believe having more than one AV installed, using the registry can be a problem in itself.

 

>> I don't agree with that, COMPUABLE. I believe having more than one AV installed, using the registry can be a problem in itself. Toni_1947<<

Hi Toni...

In general, I tend to agree with your “belief,” as well, although it would have been nice if you pointed out specific examples of exactly how having more than one AV installed (but not running simultaneously), using the registry can be a problem in itself. For example which programs you’re referring to, which registry keys are affected, etc

The reason that I agree with you is because; as I said earlier, many of these antivirus types of programs simply do not "play nice" or work well with each other and there isn't a single antivirus program website on the web that advises doing this – having two AV programs installed and/or especially having both running side-by-side – well, that in itself says a lot.

Additionally, a targeted web search regarding this matter will reveal many posts in forums throughout the web where people had numerous problems having and running two anti-virus programs. At the same time, Users will likely find very few forum posts anywhere on the web; where people who had two programs installed actually benefited in any way from using this method.

However, I believe that there are certain instances (very few, actually), where it might be okay to install; but not simultaneously run multiple antivirus programs. For instance, I know several people at who claim that AVG Anti-Virus by Grisoft seems to live quite nicely with AntiVir Personal Edition; again as long as only one is used the 'resident' antivirus program. They claim that this is due; in a large part, to the fact that AVG free and AntiVir personal are inclined to examine the same exact files very differently.

I've also heard from some people in various computer-related forums that I visit; that they use HandyBits VirusScan Integrator 5.5 which is free for personal use; and supposedly allows users to scan the same files with several antiviral programs.

Summing up here; I'm not saying that it is a "great idea" to do this (have two AV installed), and I don't see any real benefit from doing so; however I just do not believe it is out of the question or impossible to do so in every single instance.

Good Luck!

 

....and if conflicts and/or other problems DO occur...was it worth it to have 2 AVs installed? I think NOT.
There are too many free online scans available to get a 'second opinion' that WON'T cause problems.
Why risk having problems with more than 1 AV installed?
It's a 'no brainer' IMHO

 

>> There are too many free online scans available to get a 'second opinion' that WON'T cause problems. Why risk having problems with more than 1 AV installed? It's a 'no brainer' IMHO. Toni_1947 <<

Great post, Toni!

And you're absolutely correct here! I completely forgot to mention using the free "online scanners" as a backup or secondary scanner to the already installed AV program! - This is always a much better idea; than having the potential conflicts arising from having two entirely different antivirus programs installed.

Thanks for the 'corrective' follow-up Toni.

Good Luck!

 

I'm looking to get rid of Norton and go with either AVG or Avast. Should I want to do the online scan, would you mind putting a link to some here? I bet there are some if I search this forum, but I seem to running short on time and am still on dial-up (at the mo ... hope to change soon!) so quicker if I just ask the experts!


Thanks,
GrammawNewbie

 

My Avast pro combines all in one...including a resident scanner among seven other on access scanner providers.....who needs to run 2 antivirus's?

Never run more than one simultaneously!

Run one good antivirus program and you should not have a problem.

Regards.....