Can I have two anti-virus software’s installed on the same Laptop?

I have installed AVG Free Version 2013 and Microsoft Security Essentials (I think it is a full version as I have an original OS and I downloaded it from MS website). Can both be there on the same Laptop? Will there actions lead to some kind of conflict? And if not, which one is better and which one should I keep?

You can but they may conflict with each other and give you false positive reports of viruses when there’s none.

I normally have one installed and then the activeX (or similar) of a second antivirus to analise my computer from the cloud. And that’s about it.

As molona says, it is possible, but not advisable.

If you are trying to decide between the two products you mention, this might be worth reading: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm

Also look at VirusTotal. They have a free uploader which you can install on your PC. After so doing, you can right click on a file and select “Send to -> Virus Total” and have 40+ antivirus engines analyze your file in the cloud.

I think, you should install only one anti virus in one laptop the reason is multi antivirus programs will conflict each other and hamper performance of the laptop, McAfee is the best antivirus software I like.

Yes, can have two anti virus software in the same laptop. The system will be slow in working if you use two antivirus software.

From my personal experience, the new antivirus you try to install would require you to unintall the previous antivirus before it proceeds with the new installation…

follow me, if the MS Essential have a license key you should remove AVG, MSE is more stronger for windowns, and just only one Anti virus program in one laptop.

Since antivirus programs use signature files to identify viruses, running two antivirus programs at once would have each detect the other’s signature file as containing millions of viruses and would delete it or quarantine it. Both antivirus programs would then either crash as their signature file would be missing or would try to download the signature file again.

The best you could hope for is that one antivirus kills off the other before it can kill off the first and so would have one of them continue to run while constantly blocking the other from running as it is considered to contain millions of viruses.

For faster processing and more accurate control the best option would be to uninstall one of the programs so that the other isn’t constantly working to block it.

Please don’t if you don’t want your laptop to function weird. Like weird stuffs happening when you work on files and stuffs like that. At times, your system hangs up and you don’t really know why. Stick to just one anti-virus. Don’t compromise your system, it’ll get confused with two.