These days it seems like everyone, from everywhere, is looking to access (hack) your computer for malicious purposes. Some people are dealing with the growing threat by installing multiple anti-virus, or anti-malware, applications figuring what one program doesn’t catch, the second one will. This is a terribly incorrect assumption, where the exact opposite is actually true.
When more than one anti-virus, or anti-malware, application is installed the performance of your PC will suffer. You will also notice that the time that it takes to startup and login to your PC will take an excessive amount of time. The presence of the two programs can even cause file corruption on the PC. When more than one anti-virus, or anti-malware, program is running on a computer at the very least the performance will suffer as each program will take its turn checking the file being accessed to determine if it is safe.
What also happens quite often is that each program, during its scanning of the PC and its files, will ‘determine’ that the other program’s application and more likely virus signature files are active viruses. When this happens, components of one or both applications can be quarantined and then become inaccessible to the program that it is a component of. This then renders the application unstable, as it may begin to generate errors or even worse it may just cease to function without alerting you. Thus, leaving you with no protection at all.
The only time that having two anti-virus or anti-malware programs installed on the same PC could function is if each handled only one of the functions. Either anti-virus or anti-malware. If the first program was anti-virus, the second application would have no Real-time anti-virus scanning functionality, and would only be used to protect against malware. One application would be used for the purpose of day to day virus protection, and the second used for removal of malware. This is not really the best configuration since it means maintaining two applications, and making sure that their scanning does not overlap. This would again cause a decrease in performance should both execute at the same time.
The best type of anti-virus solution is a product that touts a ‘Suite’ of solutions. This would be a product such as Kaspersky Endpoint Protection that contains anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewall protection all in one application. Each component operates in concert with the others to protect against malware, virus infections, port attacks, etc. while running a single application without concern of conflicting applications and performance degradation.
If you’re looking to implement a reliable, enterprise level security solution, we’re here to help. Get started by scheduling a free network infrastructure assessment.
