Expert: James Filmer - 1/1/2009

Question
QUESTION: Can I use more than one Security Program at a time?  Such as McAfee and AVG.  I'm told this is bad or can't be done. Bottom line what should I do?  I use  XP/sp2.

ANSWER: Hi Earl,

"Security Programs," can be divided into 3 basic groups: Firewall, Anti-virus, and Anti-spyware-malware- trojan-worm-keylogger-basically everything else software.

Bottomline: one Firewall (for the average user), one on-access scanner Anti-virus app, and more than one anti-spyware app.

There are several links on the site I administrate (Enrgy21.com) about anti-virus and firewall basics that provides more details (Claymania.com see Anti-Virus References>Anti-Virus, Security, On-Access Scanner).

Companies like AVG, McAfee, TrendMicro, Symatec, Lavasoft...have single applications as well as "suites" - two or more security applications. However, a suite will always have only one firewall and/or one anti virus application.

See also my reply to a similar Allexperts question from Kayla 12/23/08 that ends with "An antivirus application is like the oil in a car, the firewall is like the oil filter, and applications including anti-spy/adware...like everything else..."




(Note: If made public, no private info is revealed and it might help others).

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Good Answer, but the AVG wants me to uninstall McAfee during its renewal.  From your answer, I should keep both.
I also use Malwarebytes' anti-malware.  The AVG and Malwarebytes were installed during a recent trip to the repair shop.  I pay for the McAfee, the other two are "free" versions.

Answer
If the McAfee software is the the Firewall only, and AVG is the only Anti-virus, not sure why AVG would say uninstall McAfee. They should be compatible under those conditions.

They're not compatible if McAfee includes an anti-virus real-time scanner.
Then again, you've been running both (without problems?) until it was time to renew AVG? Is it still functioning?

No reason to remove McAfee just yet since you've paid for it. What version are you using?