Will all my Apps get along?

Can you have too many protective applications?

I don't want the hassle of a virus but I don't want to spend my life updating and running protection apps (actually, I do seem to get quite a buzz out of it, but that's the subject of another post on a psychotherapy forum).

Also, I don't want different apps to conflict.

At the moment, with a new laptop on the way, and no money to buy KAV and Outpost (which I will in about a month's time) I've looked for a decent list of free apps and have downloaded:

Adaware
Adaware
AntiVir
Avast
AVG
BitDefender
Ewido
Prevx
ProcessGuard
SafeXP
Spybot
Spy Doctor
SpywareBlaster
SpywareGuard
Startup CPL, and StartupMonitor
Sygate Personal Firewall

Will these programs all play nicely, or will I be pulling them off one another in a week's time?

(Also is this list excessive? Are there obvious duplicates? Is there anything I've left out that is essential?)

Thanks for any help anyone can offer...

 

Why install adaware twice? They should work together okay, if you turn off some of the real time protection.

If they are all on, it still might work, but that's iffy.

Yes there are duplicates among the scanners, but I assume that is on purpose.

There is some duplicate among Prevx,Processguard and Startup CPL, and StartupMonitor.

And I highly recommend you remove spywareguard/

 

Thanks Pollmaster. My adaware typo was not the "obvious duplicate" I intended it to be.

I just want to be able to run a few apps instead of a long list. To that end I think I'm going to install KAV and Outpost on trial until I can stump up the cash for them next month.

Why do you not recommend Spyware Guard? It seems to get good reports on here, generally.

What else could I get rid off from the list?

 

Spywareguard is one of those apps that was good at the time it was created, but is now outdated and people are still using and recommending out of habit mainly because it's free. AVG is very nearly but not quite reaching this stage.

And SG defenders spare me the lecture on "heuristics". If you really think SG has heuristics that can stand up to almost 2 years lack of defintion outdates, I got a bridge in brooklyn .......

Or the other anti browser hijack features were nice at the time they were done, but these days any modern antispyware package monitors all these and more.

The best anyone can say for SG , is that it doesn't hurt. But I personally don't see the need for it.

 

SG is mainly a behavior blocker, but it doesn't do anything that Prevx, etc., doesn't do better.

Not really.. there is definitely some between StartupMonitor and Prevx, but the others serve different functions. You may not be that much better off with PG free + Prevx, but if you want to keep them both then there's not really any harm, they both work fine together. Personally I like SysInternal's AutoRuns over the startup control panel.. some may find it easier to use startup control panel, however.

There is definitely redundancy here, I would not recommend running more than one of these full-time. Personally I would go for Anti-Vir, as it tends to show the better detection rates, and if you want a backup then use BitDefender free. You could probably do without the backup if you wanted to, though.. Ewido is probably the better backup scanner.

 

Thanks Pollmaster and Notok.

Pollmaster:

I think I won't bother with SG or AVG. Thanks for the opinion.

Notok:

The reason I like StartupMonitor is because it's small and does the job. Is Prevx much better? How big is it? I don't like the idea of complex programs loading at startup (One of my particular superstitions). Is it easy to set up?

By this do you mean PrevX can do most of what PG Free does?

If PrevX is decent and can do all this (and isn't too mauch of a resource hog, and doesn't create conflicts or crashes - hmmm, I'm asking a lot) then I think I can strip my list down to:

Outpost
KAV
Adaware
AntiVir
Ewido
Prevx
Proxomitron
Spybot
SpywareBlaster

(Don't want to use SafeXP after reading further, Not sure about Spy Doctor)

(Didn't mention Proxomitron, didn't really consider protection, but guess it can be)

Seem reasonable? Again, anything critical I'm missing? There's no specific registry defence, other than what's offered by those already in the list. ANyone recommend one or have opinions on whether one is necessary?

 

If you're going to use Prevx, there's just no reason to use StartupMonitor is all. I liked Prevx a lot, but they have changed the way it works in the latest version because half their users were just allowing everything, so it wasn't effective for those people at all. You might check out the Prevx 1 beta.. if you're active in reporting bugs, it could mean a free license for you (assuming they're still taking new testers, I think they are, but don't quote me on that). How it performs tends to depend entirely on your system.

I've had a lot of luck with both SafeXP and Spyware Doctor. The only thing that it's done wrong for me is break Windows Update, others have not had this problem. I would say give it a go, just make a restore point before using it and don't use anything else until you've tested things out (ie, use it after installing everything else). It seems like Spyware Doctor is getting better all the time, as far as their detection rates.

You could use the other hardening tools in the first link in my signature, too. I would recommend WWDC above all others, followed by SecureIt and HardenIt.

Proxomitron can provide good protection, especially if you use Kye-U's filter pack.

Everything looks pretty reasonable. If you decide not to with Prevx, you could try WinPatrol. I mentioned that you could go without PG with Prevx not because they do the same thing, but because I don't know that it would give you all that much more protection. They do different things and compliment eachother well, but if you're looking to trim down, this is one area that you could do so.

 

Do you really need any specific registry defence like Regdefend or MJ registry watcher? I would guess not, depending on what other apps you use.

I'm not certain if something like StartupMonitor is needed, since most of your other apps will inform you of changes in autostarts in real time. Strictly speaking though, a few autostarts don't require registry changes, so depending on your choices you might want to see if this is covered

Something like startup CPL is a different matter, since you use it to manually tweak startups, so you can keep it if you like. Some of us like autoruns (sysinternals), others like starter, autostart explorer (from Trojan hunter),autostart viewer (from DCS) , a2hijack free (from a2 squared) but it's a matter of preference, and coverage really.