Can we install 2 antivirus

[rajcoll]

Can Computer Specialist give me such idea, if we install 2 antivirus in 1 pc, is there any harmful? Please explain me?

[Raymond]

If installing 2 antivirus doesn't harm your computer, it will definitely slow it down.
It is not advisable to use two different antivirus unless they have been integrated.
Some brands that uses multiple engines are G Data, Coranti, Emsisoft....

[hal9000]

Would agree with Raymond, certainly not advisable to install two antivirus IF they both use real time protection although I have heard there are a couple of them which supposedly work together OK, still not advisable.

Don't see a major problem if you have one av with the real-time protection, and one to act as an on demand scanner only such as Kaspersky's Virus Removal Tool or Microsoft's Safety Scanner to name a couple.

[hellnoire]

I would never recommend it, even as a joke, to run two AVs, either on demand for one and active for the other, or both on demand, etc.

Scanning with them would make one AV pick up the virus from the other's quarantine, and it would be like a tug-of-war match between them. It wouldn't be worth it.

[hal9000]

I would agree installing 2 full blown antivirus packages like AVG and Norton, and then turning off real time protection in one of them to act as a scanner would not be a great idea simply because of all the services and drivers that get installed with them and the potential for problems is high. As we know, even when you turn things like that off, they're never truly off.

I would not agree though, that a simple on demand scanner like the two mentioned above and others would cause major problems with an installed antivirus. Ran these tools 1000's of times on infected and non infected machines and never had a problem with them interfering with the installed security software or it's quarantine / virus vault. After all, it is essentially what they are designed to do.

[Raymond]

I think the problem would be even able to install 2 antivirus at the first place.
Most antivirus installer checks for any existing antivirus and stops the installation from continuing if they found any.

[Networx]

Quite agree. Mostly one antivirus will define other as a malware seeking to monitor / take control of system and quarantine it or in worst case delete. And most popular antivirus can identify common threats, so not sure if you actually get any advantage in using 2 AV. You can always use an Antivirus + Antimalware + Firewall to make sure that you are protected.

[A Guy]

I'll agree with the general rule, but...

I have posted this before. Many run Avast! with Microsoft Security Essentials with no issue

https://blog.avast.com/2009/08/28/greetings-from-redmond/

Also, I run Avast in real time, and have Avira Antivir with the guard off as an on demand scanner with no issues. But then again, I don't have anything in quarantine as I have never been infected

A Guy

[hellnoire]

I suppose the proper answer is : If you're technical enough, you can try, but we wouldn't recommend it as a rule

[kiku]

I would say if you have 2 similar config computers, you will find the difference of installing 1 & 2 antivirus.
Eventhough no issues or conflicts btw, definitely you will find the one with 2 antivirus running slower than the one with 1 antivirus installed.
You can test also with some of the malicious files, the detection rates with 2 antivirus installed machine is much lower than that of the 1 antivirus .