Is Having Two Antivirus Programs Bad? See Details to Know Answer!

Want Two Antivirus Software in Computer

Nowadays malware including viruses, adware, spyware, ransomware, etc. always exists anywhere and it may invade your computer without your consent to steal sensitive information, encrypt files, etc.

To keep your PC safe and prevent malware infection, running an antivirus program can help a lot. In Windows 11/10, Windows Security is the in-built antivirus software that opens and runs in the background to protect your PC.

Some of you may consider having two antivirus programs on the computer to offer double protection. To be specific, you may choose to install McAfee, Malwarebytes, Avast, or another third-party antivirus software besides Windows Security and run them at the same time to remove threats.

Can you have two antivirus programs at the same time? We don’t recommend doing this. Want to know why? Continue reading the following parts.

Is Having Two Antivirus Programs Bad

Running two antivirus programs could cause difficulties and now let’s see what happens if you have more than one antivirus program on computer.

Virus Threat Interception Conflicts

Antivirus software has high-level system access to look for suspicious activity, analyze event information, and pass suspicious files via a malware scanner. If you have two antivirus programs running, they may inject their interceptor into the system kernel.

As a result, conflicts happen, which can cause one or two to work incorrectly and even let them report each other as suspicious. Seriously, malicious code or files are neglected, leading to system crashes or data loss.

Take up Too Many System Resources

Having two antivirus programs on your computer may slow down your computer speed since they consume your resources significantly.

Simply speaking, a single full antivirus suite gives its best to combat any threats to keep the PC safe, which puts a noticeable strain on system resources. Now you run two antivirus software and just imagine what would do.

You may encounter high CPU & RAM usage and the system runs slowly. If two software competes against each other, resources may be higher. On an old or low-end PC, freezes and crashes can happen.

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False Positive Virus Detection

Running two antivirus programs can bring false alarms.

Let’s assume the two software you have installed doesn’t conflict. One program detects a threat and puts it in quarantine and another program also finds it but moves it to another quarantine location, which causes multiple false virus alerts and even makes it difficult to delete the suspicious file or app. What’s worse, the software may be distracted to deal with other threats.

In summary, having two antivirus programs at the same time is bad in multiple aspects. Remember to only run one antivirus software to protect your PC from viruses and malicious programs.

Suggestion: Back up Files

In addition to using an antivirus program to keep your PC safe, you had better have a habit of backing up your files regularly since you never know when malware can hit and corrupt your data. To easily back up files, MiniTool ShadowMaker, free PC backup software, can help a lot.

Besides, this program supports automated backups, differential backups, and incremental backups that help you to only back up newly added or changed files at a configured time point automatically. Now, don’t hesitate to get MiniTool ShadowMaker for a try.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Related post: How to Secure Windows 10? 7 Methods

Verdict

From this post, you know having two antivirus programs is bad since something could happen including software conflicts, high system resources, and false alarms. Besides, you had better back up your data regularly to keep data safe. Hope that this post does a favor.