Do I need all these free programs, eg. AVG, Spybot, Adaware plus other help needed?

sunni

I have the following free software on my PC and wondering do I really need them all? AVG, Spybot, Adaware, CWShredder & Zonealarm.

Recently I noticed my PC was slowing down and freezing and I thought I'd try another free anti-virus program. I downloaded Spyware Doctor and it found 90 infections that none of the above found?? Should AVG not have found these? Is it ok to have Spyware Doctor along with AVG?

Also I noticed that system resources are at 27%, would this be why my PC is freezing & slowing down?

Thanks and I appreciate any help!

Browntoa

reading around Spyware doctor ahs a habit of finding "False Positives" so i would'nt say it was a true scan

If you are running Xp then the Microsoft antispyware is a much better Free bit of software

and i use almost the same list of software as you...bar zoneaalrm so i would not say it is excessve

sunni

Thanks for your reply Browntoa, my pc is Win98SE - ok I didn't know that about Spyware Doctor, maybe I should delete it then, thanks again.

John_M_Business

Essentially, you need to tick at least three 'boxes' for any machine connected to the Internet:
1. Firewall
2. Anti-Virus
3. Anti-Spyware

In your case you have:
1. Zone Alarm
2. AVG
3. Spybot, Adaware, CWShredder

The chances are that you don't need three anti-Spyware softwares - and they can interfere with each other and affect the amount of RAM you are using (all being processes running concurrently). Additionally, I had AVG, but found that it was not as quickly updated as other Anti-Virus softwares and therefore unreliable. I also had ZoneAlarm, but I found it too cautious in many respects.

In my case, I have:
1. Norton Firewall
2. Norton Anti-Virus
3. Microsoft Anti-Spyware

I would 'bin' your other anti-Spyware devices and get the Microsoft one. At the moment it is free, although it is highly likely that MS will start charging for it in the future. It is way better than the ones you currently have.

sunni

Thanks John_M_Business for your help. That could just be my problem as I have too many software programs.

I will remove the 3 anti-spyware programs and install the microsoft one. Was checking it out there and wondering if this was the one?

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

I also have 2 anti-virus programs AVG and Spyware doctor so I'll need to remove one of those as well!

Thanks again.

sunni

My PC is Windows98SE so hope that it works with it ok!

Rex_Mundi

MS antispyware program wont work with W98SE. It is only available for W2000 and XP.

Spybot, Adaware, and CWShredder are all OK to run on the same computer. The only chance of conflict would be if they run all at the same time. Which they don't. I've run all these three and a couple more for a few years now on a W98SE machine, with no problems whatsoever. They only run when you use them for a scan, so they can't interfer with each other.

Spybot and Adaware sometimes pick up stuff that the other one missed. It is advisable to use both.

With the way the internet is going. We actually need more than one antispyware program nowadays. They work in different ways and pick up different types of nasties.

Both Adaware and Spybot are reconised as the leading antispyware programs.

Sparks

I'm running WinXP and have ZoneAlarm, AVG, Adware, Spybot S&D, and Spywareblaster. I'm happy with them and keep them updated as you should. You can take a look at this review regarding SpywareDoctor. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1645388,00.asp

Rex_Mundi

I also have 2 anti-virus programs AVG and Spyware doctor so I'll need to remove one of those as well!

Spyware Doctor isn't an antivirus program. It is another antispyware program. This is the only antispyware program I've had problems with for a long long time. I ended up removing this one myself. It was giving me false results, and buggered up one program I'd been using for a few years (and certainly never contained spyware).

My recommendation is.

1 Antivirus
1 Firewall
AT LEAST 2 Antispyware programs. Spybot and Adaware really do pick up bits that the other misses.

I would say it would be a VERY BAD move to uninstall both of these. As I said before. Adaware and Spybot are both recognised as leading antispyware programs and are both recommended on many top computer security sites.

researcher

I run xp on my laptop with AVG, zonealarm, adware and spybot - they've all been trouble free, and I happily replaced Norton when I installed them. I was recommended these from a computer company!

sunni

Thanks everyone for your help Much appreciated.

Sorry got abit mixed up there in one of my posts by saying that Spyware Doctor was an Anti-virus program!

So I am just wondering do you all use the free versions of these software programs as I know for eg. you can buy the Ad-Adware SE Plus 1.02 software?