On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:10:22 GMT, Beemer wrote:
>I have McAfee installed and would like to try out AVG or Kaspersky. I know
>that running two is bad but would it be okay if I disabled all the McAfee
>programs in Security Center and then installed another program?
I know conventional wisdom says 2 is okay, as long as only one is
scanning realtime, but I'll second David's "no" with more explanation.
Back in the day when XP first came out, a friend (trusted computer
knowledge) and I used to handle a good bit of malware and suspected
malware. She was also into testing to see if "conventional wisdom"
was true, and she was really giving her new XP the workout. She had 2
AV installed on both 98SE and XP, none scanning in real time since
this is most annoying when purposely handling malware. We always
disabled AV by stopping any files from starting, rather than trying to
stop them once started, or relying only on the program's settings to
do so. Literally, we searched with full knowledge that something
could be hiding, and they were as inert as we could possibly make
them.
She once had a malware file that was ostensibly known by both, but
neither detected on an individual file scan. Uninstalling one
(completely, with a third-party uninstaller program) would allow the
other to detect, and vice versa. This was repeatable multiple times,
on both her computers. There were no errors produced, no noticable
slowing of the scan time, no sign of other malware on the computer, no
sign at all of anything amiss. And perhaps worst for us, we could
never determine WHY.
I won't say which programs it was, because it was so long ago and I
don't believe it matters. This was around the time that a LOT of
malware started disabling AV, with the consequent accelerated attempts
by AV writers to keep their programs from being disabled. My point is
that these days, it can be almost impossible to disable AV completely
and permanently, but even if you could, you shouldn't trust either of
them.
Carol
>> Stay informed about: Is two anti-virus programs installed okay if I....(see ins.. 
FAQ
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
