BleepingComputer.com: Do I need to remove some of my antivirus/antispyware programs?

Hi,

Just need a bit of advice as to whether I need to get rid of any of my programs/replace them with anything better or even add to them. I just want to make sure that I have the best free protection possible without any conflicts etc. Also, it's important to me that the programs are as light as possible.

I currently have:

Comodo Firewall
Avira AntiVir
Spywareblaster
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D
CCleaner

Thanks in advance!

Hi, Ad-Aware and Spybot are no longer recommended due to poor testing results. Your setup seems solid, however I would add both Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAnti-Spyware as real time scanners. And just so you know, CCleaner is NOT any type of protection/security software, all it does is cleans temporary files.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply. So should I just remove ad-aware and spybot? Do I need to replace them with anything else, or just add Malwarebytes and Superantispyware?

Thanks,

Sarah

I recommend taking advantage of the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Protection Module which uses advanced heuristic scanning technology to monitor your system and provide real-time protection to prevent the installation of most new malware. This technology monitors every process and stops malicious processes before they can infect your computer. Enabling the Protection Module feature requires reqistration and purchase of a license key that includes free lifetime upgrades and support. After activation, Malwarebytes can be set to update itself and schedule scans automatically on a daily basis. The Protection Module is not intrusive as it utilizes few system resources and should not conflict with other scanners or anti-virus programs.

SUPERAntispyware, I would use as an on demand scanner rather than real time.

As a general rule, using more than one anti-spyware program like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, SuperAntispyware, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, etc will not conflict with each other or your anti-virus if using only one of them for real time protection and others as stand-alone scanners. In fact, doing so increases your protection coverage without causing the same kind of conflicts or affecting the stability of your system that can occur when using more than one anti-virus. The overlap of protection from using different signature databases will aid in detection and removal of more threats when scanning your system for malware. However, if using all their real-time resident shields (TeaTimer, Ad-Watch, MBAM Protection Module, Spyware Terminator Shields, etc) together at the same time, there can be conflicts when each application tries to compete for resources and exclusive rights to perform an action. Additionally, competing tools may even provide redundant alerts which can be annoying and/or confusing.

sarahabutair, on Feb 11 2010, 03:20 PM, said:

I would remove them and replace with Malwarebytes and SUPER, and if you have the money, upgrade Malwarebytes to the pro version would be beneficial as well, as the real time protection is amazing.