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janaFlag for United States of America

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Questions operations antivirus & antispyware tools

We have 3 apps that a user runs on his computer every other day: 'SUPERAntiSpyware', 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy' and 'Comodo Antivirus'.  The user runs the 3 apps at that same time whenever cleaning up is desired.  The user would leave theses tools running overnight.

The app 'Comodo Antivirus' never finds a virus.  The apps 'SUPERAntiSpyware' and 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy' always finds spyware.  In  the morning the user would first click 'SUPERAntiSpyware' to delete or isolate the threats reported and then do the same to 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy'.  Finally restart the computer.   Note, prior running the apps, the user would run cCleaner to cleanup any junk in his drive.

To-Date, there is no problem we have identified and all seems to be ok.  Our question is more directed to know EE opinion on:

  • Why 'SUPERAntiSpyware' and 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy' display different results?
(Spy-bot would show registry entries and superantispyware would show files)
  • Any negative effect by running these 3 apps simultaneously?
  • Finally, is it necessary to run cCleaner prior running the apps?
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John
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1. Different products will produce different results. Some common ground, but A will always find something that B did not and vice versa.

2. Multiple A/V:   Opinions vary;  I do not. One Product only. Windows 10 - Windows Defender with V1709 and up is best.  It works really well.  Multiple A/V products can conflict if running in real time. You need to check your products.

3. CCleaner:  It works. I do not use it. I use Disk Cleanup instead. Running CCleaner will not clean up viruses and so no impact there if run before other tools.

Cookies are normally not an issue and so do not need to be found and cleaned up.
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Dr. Klahn

Any negative effect by running these 3 apps simultaneously?

1.  Possibly, if:

a) the programs load their databases into memory and keep them there in uncompressed form (which seems likely as it would speed up operation)
b) the programs scan memory and other processes for offending code

then it is possible that running all of them at once could cause false detections.

2.  Certainly each one will run more slowly if they are run simultaneously, as they all want to bang on the same items (processes and executable files) at the same time.  Whether the slowdown is "significant" is not clear; it would be necessary to run each one individually and time them, then all at once and time that.

Finally, is it necessary to run cCleaner prior running the apps?

You will get many different opinions on this, but IMO CCleaner is dangerous and should not be used.  Tampering with the Registry is inadvisable and should be regarded as an extreme approach to be used only when dealing with severe problems not solvable by any other method.
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ASKER

Just checking again... noticed that 'SUPERAntiSpyware' detects files and 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy' detect registry.  Based on you guys experience in these 2 apps, is this by design?
Those tools tend to be aggressive at finding all kinds of cookies, even ones that are innocuous. One reason why I do not use them.
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ASKER

I understand that but can you confirm that 'SUPERAntiSpyware' is design to run on files and 'Spy-Bot Search and Destroy' on registrys?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Andrew Leniart
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