[jackstarke]

Is using just Microsoft Security Essentials adequate for antivirus and spyware protection or should I also be using AVAST, AVG, CA or some other security program?

[netguysc]

Initial reports looks as though MSE is quite a good antivirus / anti malware.
I am using it for my system. I would advise aginst using more than one antivirus, they tend to trip up each other.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi netguysc,

Yes, using more than one antivirus is ill advised, but only if you attempt to use more than one at the same time. You can have as many AV products on your system as you want installed - but, just use only one (enabled) as your prime, and then - say on Saturday's, boot up in SAFE MODE and then execute one at a time.

Belarc Advisor even notated the different AV's installed on my system - if you don't have it - get it as it keeps track of your software license keys - handy feature.

I did this when I used WinXP Pro SP2 with TrendMicro's PC-cillen as my prime AV w/firewall, and used AVG and A2 on Saturdays to do full disk scans in Safe Mode after having updated them online (but making sure that they were not part of my startup sequence and had no runs scheduled - i.e. to keep them disabled).

-- Tom

[extons]

I don't think this MSE is nothing special, the only reason it's getting all this promotion is because it's free. I think if Microsoft knew it was going to be the best in the business, they'd offer a paid version of it. AVG or Avast are good options for free anti-viruses. If you're looking for paid, ESET's NOD32 is a great option.

[lagunasrfr]

I use Avast but turned it off and loaded MS Security Essentials. I found MS worked very well. There was no nagging and required no attention. After using it for two weeks, I went back to Avast. Reason being that Avast downloads virus database updates at least daily while MS only loads Essentials updates once a week.

[lagunasrfr]

Noticed on previous post that I have not updated my signature in awhile.

[jackstarke]

Thank you for your input on antivirus software