Can I just disable existing AV product to evaluate ESET?

A friend would like to try ESET Smart Security 4 on his system to see if it eliminates the mysterious slow downs that he's getting. The install instructions for ESET say to remove any existing AV products before installing ESET. But he does not have any media to re-install his existing AV product if it turns out that ESET does not perform better. Can I just disable his existing AV product and then install the trial version of ESET?

Thanks!

 

Hello harryz
I can see your friends problem but running two Av solutions will probably cause system instability and a futher degrade in performance. So as you can guess now
my recommendation is to completely uninstall the existing AV-solution.
Best Regards to you

 

I second what Woodgiant said. It is highly recommended to uninstall (not only disable) other AV before installing ESET. Serious system instability may occur if two (or more) AVs are installed at the same time, even if you disable one of them.

On the other hand, it is not really necessary to have a media to reinstall a program. Actually, it's better that you go to their website and download from there, because it will be always the latest version.

Regards,
-tony

 

Hello,

As far as I know, most antimalware companies (if not all of them) allow you to re-download the installation package for their software so that it can be reinstalled. In some cases, the customer may have to register (if it was an OEM copy) or contact that vendor's customer service department for assistance.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

But if you keep the existing AV on the PC (even disabled) then I cannot see how you would find out if there are any differents in terms of performance etc...
Since there might still be something left running in the background!

So if you really want to know if there are any performance increasements...
Then do a Full Uninstallation, restart. And then install ESS.