SOLVED Anti Virus software

[calmat]

Hi everyone

On my laptop I am running quite a few ant-virus programmes, do I need all of these and if not which is the best ones to use.
Is my computer being slowed down by using all of these programmes.

Malware Bytes/Anti-Malware
SUPER Antispyware
Glary Utilities
CCleaner
ADW cleaner
Avast Free Antivirus

These programmes are all free editions.
Can anyone advise me please

Regards Calmat

 

[Grizzly]

Running multiple AV programs can cause problems and chances of infections are IMHO higher cause they fight each other. The only AV programs you have are AVAST and Malware bytes. I personally use AVAST on my Win7 installs,not on my Wind10 (I use the built in Windows Defender, but that is my own choice).
the other programs are cleaner and usually do not run at the same time (one may correct me if I am wrong). I am not a friend of those as they sometimes can do more harm than good but that is just me.
Malware Bytes and ccleaner are seemingly the preferred tools here in the forum so they seem to work properly if you know what to do with them.Cleamers are on demand programs so they do not run in the background.
Malware bytes in the free version is an "on demand" program so it starts only when you need it and does not run in the background (or has that changed meanwhile??).
What you can do id check if any of those programs are automatically started by opening the task manager and click on the startup tab.
if they do not appear in there, there is no harm of keeping them....

 

[Ian]

It's not generally recommended to use more than one anti-virus, as they can interfere with the operation of eachother... however you've only got 1 true anti-virus application in that list (Avast), so you're ok.

There's no harm in having things like MBAM, SaS, CCleaner, etc... installed - although you may wish to use them manually, rather than having them all run on startup or in the background (with the exception of Avast). This will ensure that you're not slowed down too much.

Some of those apps do different things, for example MBAM will check for anti-malware (as the name suggests), but CCleaner will help you free up disk space.

edit: beaten to it by 10 seconds by @Grizzly

 

[Tim Locke]

I only use Defender and I run Malware bytes manually once a week or so.

Unlike some AV suites, Defender does not upset nor is it upset by Windows updates. Why? because if there is a big Windows update Defender is often seen to be updated as the first thing in the string of downloads.

 

[calmat]

Hello Everyone

Thank you all very much for your help, much appreciated.

Calmat