BleepingComputer.com: Is this Overkill?

I just removed Windows Live OneCare from my Computer, since Microsoft has discontinued it. I have installed the following:

Avira
Windows Defender
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
Spybot Search & Destroy
Super Antispyware
Spyware Blaster
Ad-Aware
Zone Alarm
Hi-Jack this (yes I know that this is a very powerful tool, I have only used it once for a really bad infection)


Is this overkill? My wife thinks that I have too many spyware programs on the computers.

If so, what do you all recommend that I keep and what I get rid of?

How many of the ones in your list are resident (i.e. running in the background) versus on-demand?

Avira
Set Scheduled time

Windows Defender
Set Scheduled time

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
On Demand

Spybot Search & Destroy
Set Schdueled Time

Super Antispyware
On Demand

Spyware Blaster (Edit: I had this listed as Spy Catcher my mistake )
Runs in backgroud

Ad-Aware
On Demand

Zone Alarm
Runs in background

Hi-Jack this
On Demand

Right now with all of these installed my laptop is running 959MB of RAM, i have 2GB installed.

When i was using Windows Live OneCare i was normally running about 875 MB at a time.

Since everything else is on-demand, I do not understand why Spy Catcher and Zone Alarm are using that much memory. When I get home I will post my memory usage with Avira, Zone Alarm, and Spyware Terminator running in the background.

Well i use alot of stuff at the same time

This is a list of icons that are running on my system right now

Avira
AIM
Yahoo
MSN/Windows Live
camfrog
Networking Icon
Sound Icon
Removeable Drive (USB) Icon
Weatherbug
secuina psi
Roboform
Dell Support Center
Zone Alarm

edit

since i am running back and forth between my Computers, my laptop is running the same above programs, plus Bluetooth Module

I have decided that i am going with Avira on both computers.

I have set up Avria, Spybot, and Windows Defender to run overnight scans.

Also, is it a good idea to run mutiple scans at once? or run them one at a time?

I have edited my above posts.

I want to clarfiy that i removed Spy Catcher, and kept Spyware Blaster. I had overlooked the name of which was what.

FiOS Dan, on May 27 2009, 04:30 PM, said:

Looks like about 65 MB.

65MB, i dont get what you mean by that.

Derek Ellis, on May 27 2009, 11:34 PM, said:

It is not necessarily overkill, as long as you don't keep too many of them running resident at the same time. That would be bad (may cause conflicts). What I would do is run the antivirus program in the background, all the time, and the firewall of course always on, but the other stuff I would only run on demand. This would decrease memory usage and still provide decent protection.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is a decent way to keep up with Windows updates and other such things, and doesn't conflict with other 'security software'.

Quote

No, never run multiple scans at once. They slow each other down a great deal, and can cause many problems. Run them one at a time.

Personally, I think running overnight scans is overkill, unless you have really unsafe computer use habits for some reason. As long as you keep the antivirus realtime monitoring on, running overnight scans with it is somewhat pointless.

Generally I think people put too much emphasis on security software (antivirus, antispyware, antithis, antithat) when they think of security. Much more important, imho, is the secure configuration of the system and software that you use. Use a standard user account (not admin), use conservative & safe settings in your web browser (enable dangerous things such as Javascript, Java, ActiveX, Flash and so on only for trusted sites, otherwise keep them disabled), keep your software and operating system patched, safe browsing and usage habits ("think before you click")... the usual works. Antimalware products are just secondary, reactive protection - important, but not the most important.

Derek Ellis, on May 27 2009, 07:11 PM, said:

Ctrl+Alt+Delete>TaskManager>Processes-Mem Usage

FiOS Dan,

Oh sorry about that i guess i misunderstood what you meant. 65MB is the amount of memory those listed programs are using right?

Snakeontheplane,

My wife and I are the only ones who use our computer. We have one account, which is admin, and the guest account active. When famliy or friends want to use our comptuer we log off our account and let them use the guest account.

Is that sort of what you meant?

Derek Ellis, on May 29 2009, 04:36 AM, said:

Sort of. Having others using a guest account isn't a bad idea. However, since you and your wife are the ones that use the computer most of the time, it would be ideal if you also used an account that had limited privileges. Because using an admin account for everything is much like driving your car everywhere, always, as fast as it can go: if you're a very skilled driver and never get unlucky, maybe nothing will happen - but if you're not the best driver or get unlucky, it's an accident just waiting to happen. Antimalware products could be thought of as seatbelts - even if you have one on, crashing into something at 100 mph is going to hurt a lot. So it's better to just drive a little slower most of the time.

What I suggest is something like this:

- Create at least one, maybe two new standard user (=limited user) accounts on your system. If you want to use the same account with your wife, then create just one standard user account and use it to do all normal day-to-day computing tasks: word processing, web browsing, email, things like this. Using a standard user account for things like this is much safer than using an admin account. You could make two accounts and give one for yourself and one for your wife, so you'd have separate accounts with different settings for the software you use - so you can both customize things to your liking.
- Use the admin account only for administrative tasks, such as installing new software, Windows updates or hardware drivers and so on. Don't browse the web with it.
- Let friends & family use the guest account
- And you're set!

It can take some getting used to, but ultimately running as a standard user isn't difficult and it is a great deal safer than running as admin. There are lots of resources on the net that discuss the benefits and issues of running as standard user. It's certainly worth looking into.

Derek Ellis, on May 28 2009, 07:26 PM, said:

That is correct.

Derek Ellis, on May 27 2009, 10:34 PM, said:

Personally I'd lose Spybot, Ad-Aware, (SpywareBlaster if you use vista) and replace them with MBAM or a2 Free or both.