Generally, no. But it all depends which ones. Some combinations are OK together.

Bruce

Mike,

Malwarebytes Pro seems to work fine along side of other active scanners. I’ve been running it with MSE and/or Windows Defender on Win 7 HP, Win 8, Win 8.1, & Win 8.1 Update 1 w/o any problems for a couple of years now, of course not that long for the newer OS versions.

That said, as “general rule” it is NOT a good idea to run two active scanners at the same time as conflicts can arise. HTH :cheers:
HTH :cheers:

Having two AV’s installed together is one thing, but RUNNING them at the same time is quite another.
Never have two AV apps run virus or malware checks at the same time.

And I would also avoid having two active & “always monitoring” applications unless they are well known
to work together without conflict, Like MBAM seems to be able to do.

Some AV apps want to have their hooks into every aspect of your system, and that includes hooks into other AV apps.
Norton has traditionally been the application that wants omnipresent control.
So take the time to know your AV prior to setting things up with two active AV apps.

I have Norton 360 together with the free versions of SuperAntiSpyware and MBAM which sit quite well together although for a while, MBAM had a compatibility problem with Norton but that was sorted

SAS and MBAM tend to scan for Malware which can include viruses/Trojans that have slipped through the net, whereas anti virus programs protect from both viruses and malware, although the pro version of MBAM does a bit more – don’t know about the Pro version of SAS, but some AV programs may not recognize malicious toolbars/add-ons (PuP) as a threat when they are bundled with downloaded programs.

http://usa.kaspersky.com/internet-security-center/internet-safety/Malware-remover-vs-antivirus-software#.U02hMp1wbIU

http://lifehacker.com/the-difference-between-antivirus-and-anti-malware-and-1176942277

As previously stated though, you should only install one active AV program as they will conflict and cause a range of problems, but generally when trying to install a second AV, it will usually detect that one is already installed.

The conflict arises when an AV program hasn’t been correctly uninstalled prior to installing another as registry residue or an uninstalled expired trial version is what causes the problem.

As the Pro version of MBAM is more active, I don’t know how that will sit with an AV program – those who run the Pro version will be better placed to advise on that.

It really depends on the programs. I run Emsisoft Antimalware which had no trouble running at the same time as some other AVs (MSE, for example). It required some configuration, but it was definitively possible.

This said, I think it’s better to run different types of security software, that can complement each other. MBAM Pro is a case of of antimalware software that can be run at the same time with other AVs (including Emsisoft Antimalware). There are others, of course. I also think running a HIPS coupled with an AV and other software such as MBAM Pro can give you a good overall protection.

If this is the wrong place to ask this subsidiary question , please move it.
I run MBam Pro and MSSE on W7 SP1. Each is set to exclude checking the other.
Each is also set to provide real-time protection.
Is that considered “running them at the same time”; or am I misunderstanding the comments above?
If it is, of the 2, which one would you recommend having its real-time protection disabled?
Thank you,
Dick

Dick,

Yes that is considered running them at the same time. You don’t have to disable either as they play well together as I stated in my previous post in this thread. HTH :cheers:

As the two linked articles that I’ve posted have advised, it’s best to have a scanner as well as an AV program.

While AVAST is highly rated, you could go back to NAV and the free versions of MBAM as well as SAS.

I use Norton 360 and SAS for the quick scans as the free version of MBAM v2 takes too long to run on my machine, although others haven’t had that problem but will keep MBAM should I feel I need a deeper scan.

If NAV doesn’t include NPE as a scan option, you can download it and run it as a .exe from your Downloads folder, but it performs a Rootkit scan as default which can be disruptive to some programs you have installed because it is quite aggressive, but I haven’t had any problems after using it.

You need to flip the page to select its non Rootkit scan mode.

I think that one antivirus is enough, you can keep 1 active in RAM (like Avast, AVG and so on), and other program like malwarebytes for weekyl scansion.

This sounds like the old handed down bias against Norton 360 – it was in fact MBAM after its upgrade that caused the problem by stopping the MMC which froze the computer.

Prior to this upgrade MBAM and Norton 360 sat together without any problems and it has no problems with MBAM v2# – unless that is the reason why the “quick” scan takes ~20mins for me.

Norton 360 detects if another AV program is installed which may be a failing of other AVs when they are installed and if this was incorporated into their installation files, then there would be a lot less people coming to forums saying that this, that or the other doesn’t work when I installed a given AV onto a new OEM computer or they hadn’t correctly uninstalled the old AV program – and I certainly wouldn’t recommend MSE for <=Win7 to anyone ! – don't know about Defender in Win 8 but have seen people prefer their own AV program to that.

Norton 360 auto turns Windows Firewall off on installation.

As for Norton 360 being heavy on resources – it will use more than the average AV because it is more than just an AV program but has been worked on over the years so that it is no longer the hog that was once reported.

As a test, I uninstalled Norton 360 and installed MSE and didn't notice any performance differences at all, although that may have had something to do with having 8GB RAM installed but NIS which is a lighter version, is equally effective in keeping a computer safe.

depends

some of them play nice with others
but some dont

i run winpatrol plus a virus scanner, firewall, registry checker, root kit stopper, plus others to stop spyware ads and spam yada yada
i run mbam in batch mode too.
mbam may be doing somethings in RT as does the browser and other programs.

but norton and mcafee never played together well for me

so it depends what you try to run together

Hello Lounge Lizards
Please settle once and for all the debate my computer group is having about virus scanners. Is it OK to run more than one virus scanner at the same time? We pretty much agree that using two firewalls is not good, but the argument is about virus scanners.
Thanks,
Mike Rapp

@ speedball – The reason Norton and McAfee didn’t play well together is because they are two active AV programs and you would get the same problems with any other two active programs installed.

McAfee comes as part of the bloatware in the form of a 30 day free trial on this laptop and following a factory reset or initially installing Norton 360 – it tells you it has detected another AV which must first be uninstalled.

Which of Norton or McAfee did you have installed first before installing the other ?

Norton has its own firewall as I would think McAfee also has and Norton disables Windows Firewall on installation to avoid conflict.

Norton will run okay with the free versions of SAS and MBAM but not with any program that has a firewall.

If you have any remaining machines where you had both Norton and McAfee installed and they remain buggy, then Google for Norton’s Uninstaller and MCPR.exe which is McAfee’s uninstaller, to remove any residue of their programs if you hadn’t previously run the uninstallers.

It’s usually advised to run the uninstallers twice.

See https://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=125465
for instructions on setting up Malwarebytes to run with Norton 360.

Jerry

From the link I gave in post 20:

If you want to exclude the MBAM files from Norton 360 you can do that to avoid any possible conflict. Not sure what version of Norton 360 you have but here are the files that need to be excluded…..

Please exclude the following files from your Antivirus Software (not sure what version of you are using):

Note: If using a software firewall besides the built in Windows Firewall you’ll need to exclude them from it as well

For Windows XP:
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembam.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamgui.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembampt.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamservice.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malware mbamscheduler.exe
For Windows Vista or Windows 7 & 8:
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembam.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamgui.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembampt.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamservice.exe
C:Program FilesMalwarebytes’ Anti-Malware mbamscheduler.exe
For 64 bit versions of Windows Vista or Windows 7 & 8:
C:Program Files (x86)Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembam.exe
C:Program Files (x86)Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamgui.exe
C:Program Files (x86)Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembampt.exe
C:Program Files (x86)Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malwarembamservice.exe
C:Program Files (x86)Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware mbamscheduler.exe
Note: If using a software firewall besides the built in Windows Firewall you’ll need to exclude MBAM.EXE and MBAMSERVICE.EXE from it as well