Do Ii Need Both Microsoft Security Essentials and another AV

dranfu said:

There is no framework for malware. They don't all operate one way, or follow carefuly defined rules. They do whatever they can to achieve their goals, limited only by the technical knowledge and creativity of their programmer.

I think "cyber defense," to use a trite phrase, should be the same way. Use whatever you can. Use whatever works. Don't get tied into the idea that one AV is the best, just because everyone uses it. Life experience should be enough to prove that just because something is popular, doesn't necessarily mean its the best choice. Since almost every major Av developer offers a free trial, why not spend some time checking them all out.

Try MSE. Try G-Data. Try Eset. Try Avast, try em all. Try investing in a heavy-duty firewall, like Outpost Firewall, and see how that works. Try all kinds of stuff. Malware cannot be classified simply and fitted in a perfect mold, and neither can malware defense.

A very good post. I would add that the best protection is good surfing habits, avoiding doggy sites and not clicking on any links unless you are absolutely certain of their legitimacy. All of the protection in the world is not going to save a careless surfer.

CarlTR6 said:

. All of the protection in the world is not going to save a careless surfer.

Is it the careless surfer who is really at great risk? I personally think it's the person who surfs the web looking for pirated software and movies, adult content and serial numbers and key generators. I know from experience because I used to do some of these things and I used to have issues from time to time. Since ceasing all of that behavior and cleaning up my act.....my problems are essentially gone.

pparks1 said:

Lemur said:

... and yet how many people run more than one av?

I guess lots of people put themselves into risky situations and feel they need extra protection.

Dinesh said:

Lemur said:

... and yet how many people run more than one av?

I do.

Dinesh...have you really found that one product misses a bunch of stuff and the other one catches it? Because in my own personal experience getting a virus or worm, is extremely rare. I'd estimate I've had my AV stop something or warn maybe 5 times total in the past 3 years across all of the systems that I use both at work and at home. At home, I also run random scans of malware bytes...but it never finds anything either. Therefore, I'm not sure that I would benefit in any way by using multiple products.


Edit: I think that people who do the 2 AV thing...are the type that spend an overwhelming majority of their time installing and running applications that are supposed to keep their computer running well. They do daily images, they defrag every other hour, they run reg cleaners on windows startup, they scan for malware, etc. I'm not even sure when they find time to actually use the computer in a way that would let it get compromised :)

Hi there, I use Avast with MSE. While MSE is doing its job quite well. I use Avast and its got some added features like Spam Shield, Network shield, web shield, etc. Now for sure MSE wont warn me if I visit any harmfull website (I use Google Chrome though).

I m an active member at malwarebytes forum and like testing anti viruses. BTW, I dont use reg cleaners, disk defrag, etc. as you said.

Hi Dinesh. I'm surprised you use two anti-virus programs. I would think you'd take a hit in performance.

Lemur said:

Hi Dinesh. I'm surprised you use two anti-virus programs. I would think you'd take a hit in performance.

Absolutely not. While MSE uses around 80 MB RAM when idle, avast uses less than 8 MB RAM at idle. The I/O read and write figures are also in place. :) I m quite happy and feel safe with these 2.

Anytime you add an AV into the picture you're going to get some performance degradation. Add two and you're asking for trouble.

However....From what I've gathered from various posts and personal experience, MSE seems to "Play well" with most AV's. It is one of the rare programs that allows you to run it in conjunction with another AV without causing massive problems

(MSE may cause problem with some AV's, but I haven't heard any mention of it yet)

So it's your choice. You can't be too safe when your on the Wild Wild Web. Not one AV catches them all.

I will say, that with MSE, it consumes very little resources, integrates nicely with windows and has consistently rated well at it's virus catching abilities. In my book it's actually more trusted then the "paid versions".

I am like Dinesh I run MSE and Avast and have found that they work well together and have not noticed any bad side affects.

I'm with Dinesh.
If they work together and play nice why not.

I've been using the free Avast and Spybot for the past five years. I have never got a bug.

I went to the Avast Internet Security with the firewall about four months ago on my old XP system.
Swithced it over to this new PC with Win7 about a month ago.
I also added my Spybot to the Win7.
Then I read about the MSE on this forum.
So I have MSE running.
They all behave themselves and work together quite nicely.

Idle has 1.5GB in use. That includes all the ASUS utilities and all the Win7 and IE8 etc.
IE8 gobbles up more ram. 118,000K at the moment per Task Manager.
Chrome 20,000K.
If you want to save RAM dump the IE8!!!
Mike