Experts: Don’t Use Multiple Antivirus Solutions on Your Computer

Running 2 real-time AVs at the same time? It's the same old story/debate during such discussions: Theory knowledge vs personal practical experience. Sometimes, both are co-related and at other times, the 2 can't just meet eye to eye.

Why not think of it this way: Running more than 2 AVs at the same time is as possible/impossible as having 2 girlfriends/wives at the same time (or more if you will). Whether or not the 2 are going to play 'nice' or have a 'cat fight' depends on several factors/variables..e.g.

a) Are the 2 of the same mindset?
b) Are both 'tolerant' of the other's existence? Or did you 'hide' one from the other?
c) Are they both willing to share your love or are they both fighting for your sole attention?
d) Do you know how to 'tame' each one of them according to your requirements?
e) Do you know how to set 'exclusions' so that the 2 don't clash with each other?
f) What happens if both are giving birth at the same time?

You can think of the rest yourselves...

Whether or not you're going to take the 'risk' of trying out the "experiment" pretty much depends on your personal judgment and attitude. Sometimes, you might just be plain lucky and manage to stay alive 'handling' 2 girlfriends (oops, I mean AVs) at the same time. Either that or you're a super fantastic Romeo or a capable playboy. But there's also the scenario of the 2 having another affair behind your back...and/or ditching you at a later time (aka BSOD/crashes on your PC) The risk is yours to take...

Otherwise, you might just want to stick and be 'loyal' to 1 so that all your love (aka system resources) and $$$ (stability of the PC) stay pretty much intact. There's nothing wrong with that. You can also add in some spice by being a small-time flirt with a few of your female friends (aka sandbox, light virtualization). That's another route that fellow guys here decided to take so that they won't get bored.

There's also the option not to have any girlfriends (AV) at all and be a full time solo. You can always get some 'on-demand' service when and where the 'need' arises.... I mean Hitman Pro, VirusTotal and the likes. No naughty thoughts here

P.S. This was posted earlier on another similar thread long time back here

 

Instead of running two different AVs at the same time, why not running an AV which uses multi engines? The vendors of those dual/triple engines AV should ensure the compatibility of different engines being used.

 

I used to run multiple AV's (When i didnt know about Wilders) and to be honest, i never experienced any issue, at least not that i know of.

 

I've always followed single real time AV rule but never bothered experimenting for myself till recently. Tried multi engine Qihoo 360 but it had some issues like long delayed no protection startup, some modules disabling if offline etc.

Decided to test my own mix 2 real time Bitdefender+Avira since Aug. These are keepers for me until they start cannibalizing each others suites. They've been working along very well for me with only a couple easy to fix minor issues.

Seems Avira usually gets first dibs on detection alert just a split sec ahead of Bitdefender.

At this point if you delete/quarantine from Avira pop-up, Bitdefender will steal the deleted/quarantined file from Avira container folder setting Avira container to exclusions in Bitdefender fixed that.

When I ignore the pop-up alert instead, Bitdefender won't be able to delete/quarantine it since it seems to be locked down by Avira (if Avira detect get Windows can't open error if I try running the sample).

In this case I manually scan with right click context menu by either Bitdefender or Avira to delete/quarantine no problem.

Testing went with FP test files recognised by Avira (no alert pop-up), Bitdefender detects. Also with samples that both detect and adding exclusions to one AV the other always detect without fail.

All features work in both AV, I don't notice any performance hit while they're scanning (not same time) or performing other tasks and feels light as if I'm running on only a single real time AV.

Bitdefender AV Plus 2014

Bitdefender exclusions:
c:\programdata\avira\antivir desktop\infected
c:\programdata\avira\antivir desktop\temp

Avira IS 2013
checked during install options:
Real-Time
Rootkits Protection
Protection Cloud
Shell