Running multiple antivirus programs at the same time

[Seamhead]

I have McAfee installed on my computer but it hasn't updated in a week (supposedly McAfee's update server is down), so I purchased Spyware Doctor to check for threats on my computer and it discovered one high risk threat and a handful of low risk ones, which I cleaned up. According to McAfee's console, it's still protecting my computer from viruses and spyware and I have browser protection (allegedly). I like Spyware Doctor's scanning functions much more than McAfee's, though, but I want to make sure I'm not causing a conflict between the two programs. I turned SD's IntelliGuard protection off, which also disabled the computer immunization function, but I'm wondering if I need to do anything else. At the moment, I'm assuming McAfee is serving as my real time protection, while SD is merely serving as my scanner whenever I want to scan my computer.

Am I okay or do I need to shut down SD completely until I need to perform a scan, while letting McAfee do its thing? It would be much easier to let SD run with the IntelliGuard off and allow it to scan on a regular basis, but I don't want SD and McAfee conflicting with each other, causing future potential threats on my computer.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Mike

[c_edge]

Hi,

If you have purchased the SD standalone without the AV, then you should have no problems. If you keep the SD intelli-guard off and use McAfee's real time protection, this will not pose as a problem. It is not a good idea/recommended to run the real time from both products as there is a high chance of a conflict and you might also experience performance issues.

c_edge

[Seamhead]

Thanks for the quick reply. I purchased SD with AV, but have the IntelliGuard turned off, so if you say that won't pose a problem, I'm good with that. I should have done more research on SD; had I known it was available without AV I would have purchased that instead. Oh well, as long as keeping SD with the IntelliGuard function off won't cause any conflicts with McAfee, I'm happy.

Thanks!

[c_edge]

You shouldn't be running more than 1 AV either. You can disable the AV plugin withing MyAccount (http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48180) or I think you can request a refund for the AV component by contacting the support team. If you are running both without any problems, then I guess its really up to what you want to do.

c_edge

[sprintman]

I work in IT (three decades). Better to run SD w/AV and flick the Mcafee entirely. What do you have as a firewall?

[haapy]

If you have good protection like sdav, a router (hardware firewall), backup scanners for malware and viruses, I run the MS firewall. If they can't get in, they can't get out.

[sprintman]

MS firewall is poor. Get PCT Firewall Plus, or Online Armor Personal Firewall.