up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Do I have to get rid of AVG if I want to install Essentials on the new Windows 7 OS?

link|improve this question
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 14 down vote

It's the same as with any other antivirus: Having two on the same system is not recommended.

link|improve this answer
Indeed. One of our clients used to have trend, when the previous IT company they had migrated them to a new AV without ensuring proper unistallation of Trend and half their systems started BSoDing on a regular basis. Guess I should be happy, though, that's why they switched to us! – Jeff F. Jan 11 '11 at 15:03
1  
Having two products installed is usually fine, but don't have two on-access scanners running at the same time as they are likely to trip over each other. Also it is probably a good idea to pause/disable one product's on-access scanner before you run the other's on-demand scan. – David Spillett Jan 11 '11 at 15:20
2  
@David Spillet: Many of the products now are too deeply embedded into the system to coexist, even without the on-access scanners getting in each other's way, they also throw in LSPs, inject DLLs into every process they see, and otherwise cause problems. Back in the DOS TSR days, you could get away with it, nowadays you can't. – Stephanie Jul 17 '11 at 20:11
feedback
up vote 4 down vote

Personally, I would uninstall AVG.

Like with other Anti Virus programs, you may get a combination that works and can be installed together, but just because you can does not mean you should.

I would never have two security programs that do the same job - AV, Firewall etc.... You are just going to be asking for trouble.

link|improve this answer
Remember that a lot of them are going to try to do the Firewall job too even if they aren't advertised as a firewall. – Stephanie Jul 17 '11 at 20:13
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

I did my research before I installed Microsofts's Essentials and they recommend you uninstall any other Anti Virus programs prior to installing theirs. Rather than uninstall my AVG, I disabled it, just in case I wasn't happy with Microsoft's. Works for me. Haven't seen a need to re-enable AVG, even to see if they play nice with each other, On the other hand, how does one really know if your Anti Virus program is really working?

link|improve this answer
1  
Download the EICAR test file and see if it triggers a detection by your antivirus software :-) eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm – kez Jul 29 '10 at 9:32
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You don't have to, but it is highly recommended to do so - your system might otherwise slow to a crawl.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.