Have I got too much anti-virus?

molezak

Hi... I've just downloaded AVG 8.0 free... great (as the old one was driving me nuts doing it's scans then malfunctioning) but I've also got Zone Labs security suite on my computer. When I installed AVG 8.0 it told me the old AVG needed unistalling but nothing re. zonelabs - does that mean it's okay to leave on? Have I got enough anti-virus now? My techno-brain B.I.L. is on holiday otherwise I'd ask him rather than embarrass myself publicly!

Also can anyone give me advise re. whether I just have too much junk stored on my computer? It is 4 years old and I don't know whether I can or should 'clean' it up, for want of a better phrase. And also updating the usual stuff like windows and outlook express...

Really... any advice much appreciated...
Kate

thomas01155

Make sure you only have 1 anti virus installed if your security suite has a anti virus included. If you want to do a quick clean up try ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ and do a quick scan with Malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php download,install,update and scan.

Donnie

If you have, at least, the second to latest version of Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite(7.0.483.000) on your computer, there is little reason to have AVG 8 anti virus running at the same time. Remove it using Control Panel > Add/Remove or the programs uninstall feature(if it has one).

In order for us to see what is running on your computer, you can produce a HijackThis log and post it here for us to analyse.

molezak

Right, not sure if my zonelabs has anti-virus or not... have been through it and it doesn't actually say 'anti-virus' anywhere. If I remove on, which is best to remove???

Have never heard of the 'Hijackthis'... sorry for being thick but is it safe to use..?

Thanks Kate

Donnie

If it's Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite it has antivirus.

What do you see in the first line when you 'right click' on the Z in the system tray in the right hand corner and select About?

If HijackThis wasn't safe to use, I wouldn't tell you to use it.

Sput2001

Have never heard of the 'Hijackthis'... sorry for being thick but is it safe to use..?

It's definitely safe.

The report it produces will (almost certainly) contain a whole wad of unrecognisable gumff, but it'll make sense to others on here...

mjoyeux

Abexo also produce a free registry cleaner which is pretty useful at getting rid of junk from programs you have uninstalled...

PROLIANT

I recommend AVAST! Anti Virus.

Theydon_Bois

Its not advisable to have more than one AV program running, as sometimes they can report false postives against each other, thinking each other are suspious, hogging resources as they keep an eye on each other.

Stick to one, and remove the other.

Hijack This and CCleaner are very reliable products and can be used with no problems.

totalsolutions

If it's 4 yrs old well overdue a clean reinstall. I do mine at least once a year. Down load all your personal data and locate the Windows cd, it might be on the hard drive in a separate partition.