Should You Use Multiple Antivirus Programs?

Short Answer: NO!

Keywords:
antivirus, computer, programs, updaters, performance

Key Takeaway:
You won't get a virus using multiple antivirus programs.

Category Insights:
SECURITY — Security best practices include strong passwords, MFA, and regular patching.

Our Reasoning

You won't get a virus using multiple antivirus programs. However too much of a good thing can be a detriment to the performance of your computer. Periodically I will get a client who has 2, 3 or even 5 antivirus programs installed on a computer. This is a bad idea as it will bring your computer to a near standstill. It will run like molasses. Both the active scans and background scans will work the drive to death. On a spinning drive, this is called thrashing. The programs are literally competing against each other for access to the disk. This activity also creates a massive backlog in the disk queue. This creates significant delays for the user to get any work done. The Antivirus programs are competing against each other, as well as the person using the computer.

Keep It Simple

My advice is to pick a single, good quality antivirus program. There is NO need to purchase the extra options such as driver updaters, software updaters etc. Just get the basic antivirus with anti-malware. Your computer will thank you!