Ooops. Windows Defender and Avast!

Question

As most of you know I know just enough to be dangerous. I just now discovered that in addition to Avast! Winows Defender has also been running. I sure don't remember turning it on. ????????????????

Maybe it was turned on by Dell or maybe I stayed up a wee bit too late one night. No clue.

The question is: I am guessing it has been this way for quite a while and all seems to be well.

I have had no evidence of virus/malware. Which should I turn off?? I understand that the rule is: If it ain't broke - don't fix it. But another rule is one AV at a time.........

What's a boy to do??

Thanks in advance as always.

Jeff :emotion-18:

joe53 · Answer

Jeff: As far as I know Windows Defender (which is an anti-malware program, not an anti-virus) plays well with avast! AV (which I do not use) when running in real-time. I use WD with my AV (NOD32) with no problem, and I'm certain ky331 will confirm its compatibility with avast. Running only one AV and one anti-malware is indeed the rule, and avast!+WD would seem a good choice. You are not running 2 AVs. Leave both running. They complement each other, and do not conflict. As you say, 'all seems to be well'. (I'm assuming here that you do not have Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) installed on your Windows 7 system. Be aware that MSE includes both an AV and an anti-malware component, which precludes the need for both avast! & for Windows Defender.)

ky331 · Answer

Jeff,

As Joe asserted, I am using both avast (first 4.8, currently 5.0) together with Windows Defender, both running in real-time (on an XP Pro SP3 system). I have been doing so for many years, without encountering any problems.

My Security Center acknowledges only avast as being my anti-virus. (XP's security center does not make any mention of anti-malware programs)

Windows Defender monitors several areas (e.g., changes in HOSTS files, and in start-up progams) that an anti-virus typcially does not monitor (Note: in the case of these two particular features, Defender duplicates WinPatrol. But I still run them both.)

I believe many people misunderstand, and don't appreciate, all that Defender can do... perhaps because it tends to run so "quietly" on one's system. In fact, I just had an "expert" at the Avast forum advise me that "Windows Defender is un-necessay on XP Pro". I didn't want to debate him there, so I just ignored his assertion. So what's my view of Defender? ---- I don't know if Joe forgot about this, but his security primer has a link to the following article, which I feel gives a superb summary of the value of Windows Defender: http://naut.homestead.com/files/Free/castner.html

dalem29 · Answer

When I decided to not use MSE for awhile because of the updating issue, I started using Avast 5 and turned Windows Defender back on. Not sure if MSE included all the functionality of  WD or not. At any rate they work just fine together and will probably leave things as is for the time being on my Vista computer, which I use almost all of the time. I think I read here or somewhere that MSE is going to do a program update today and I might use it on my XP machine which is now just a backup.

ky331 · Answer

Dale, I had included a link to Winpatrol/BillP's blog, announcing the MSE update due today http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2010/07/remove-your-anti-virus-security.html

Virus & Spyware

Ooops. Windows Defender and Avast!

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