Windows Defender and avast 5

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

Is it OK to run Windows Defender (real time) and avast 5 ?
Mi wife´s netbook came with WD and Macafee (trial) pre-installed and both were running in real time.
I immediately UN-installed Macafee with revo, but I can not find the way to un-install WD, so is it enough to just disable WD real time feature and leave exclusively avast?

Thanks

2

you can’t uninstall WinDef in Vista and Seven, but you can deactivate it. Go to options there, in Windows Defender, and uncheck “use this program”. You don’t need it, avast5 has anti-spyware abilities…so yes, disabling it is enough.

test site (no real spyware):
http://www.spycar.org/Welcome%20to%20Spycar.html
my results:
http://picasaweb.google.com/logoswebalbums/AvastSpycarTest?feat=directlink

3

I’m running avast 5 free with windows defender running untouched. No problems at all.

4

Thank you Logos,

I am dealing with the Windows 7 Starter version and am not familiar with it yet.
I´ll follow your advise ! :wink:

5

avast 4.8 don’t detect a lot of spywares, than WD can detect easy. I have submitted a lots of undetected spyware (Trojans) to alwil and microsoft, and as to date, avast still without detecting these malware. microsoft have the complete analysis, check the last file that I submitted (the same day, to both). If avast detect this example? need a good heuristic, and signatures to detect severe spywares without WD.

https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?ThreatId=-2147368587

so, i can’t recommend turn off WD, if your decision. but these files are submitted to both since 2 month.

6

I uninstalled Windows Defender on my XP system over a year ago because I had RAM issues with it and Avast 4.8. (512/RAM)

I am sure both WD and Avast 5 could work without conflict, in this case, Avast 5, but personally, I would have 1 GB of Ram for XP or a new Vista or Windows 7 machine with this requirement met before using them both.

On the older version of Windows Defender that I had, it never found anything. I don’t know if that’s because I take good care of my computer or WD isn’t all that good, but I think I had one or two Trojans show up in the four years I had it on this machine.

Jack

7

Well, my main concern is that there could be a problem between the two real time scanners, some kind of interference or clash of some sort, but other than that I prefer more security on my wife´s PC

8

I alway leave WD even if its decent or no i still can say its dont interfert with any of my anti virus i did got in the past on any pc…

9

Exactly,

You have the influence of two strong real-time scanners that could conflict. What’s your OS and amount of RAM (if known?) My own experience seems to be that Avast likes to do what it needs to do on its own. (And I think version 5 is even less accommodating to other Real-Time Protection shields than version 4.)

I used to have everything for security including Windows Defender, Anti-Virus, (tried Norton, AVG, and McAfee, before switching to Avast) Spybot S & D, and the protective shield program Spyware Blaster, note that SB is not a scanner.)

I dumped everything EXCEPT Avast and Spyware Blaster and it has really improved speed and resources. Note that if you also use On-Line scanners like Panda or Housecall, they can interfere with the Real Time Protection of your Virus Scanner shield’s as well.

Jack

10

I have Defender running and there was never a problem between it and avast! 4.8; so far no problems with avast! 5. I don’t know how much good Defender does but it’s not causing any problems at least. ;D

11

Hi,

I always got windows defender on.
I’m now running on windows vista and I used to have an XP home edtion.
Both no problems at all.
I think it’s pretty safe to say you won’t get any problems.

I hope I helped. :wink:

12

I ended up deactivating it because it’s really unneeded, but I admit I left it running during months and months before that together with avast4 and AVG and never had any issue either. Issues can come actually when shit happens, ie spyware is detected. I’ve seen the case happening with AVG and Defender reacting at the same time, but that wasn’t a problem. They didn’t prevent eachother from interfering or acting on removal…You don’t get conflicts as bad it can happen with two AV, I mean two anti-spyware present on a system won’t conflict like two anti-virus might conflict. Must also depend on the nature of the spyware…ie what sort of action it “requires” to get neutralized.

13

I dont see the point to disable WD also as about all never did got problem with it… Also its take about nothing to run…

14

Never had a problem running Windows Defender and Avast at the same time on XP SP3 (32bit), Vista Ultimate (32bit/64bit) nor Windows 7 (32bit/64bit)…

15

There have been occasions when avast detected WDs unencrypted signatures loaded into memory.

16

Oh yeah I forgot completely about that, had the issue myself with a memory scan in V5 during the beta testing. That was while testing MSE at the same time, and another time while Windef was running unexpectedly after an MSE uninstall that automatically turns WinDef back on.

17

Thank you guys, it has been very enlightening!!!

it seems that the majority agrees that it is a harmless relationship ;D
and since the incompatibility between the two was my major concern, I am leaving both ON.

Thank you very much all of you