Anti-virus Conflicts

An effective anti-virus program is essential to the health and overall functioning of any computer. Not only does it prevent you from being the victim of a malicious virus that could ruin your system and corrupt your documents but it will proactively scan your system and alert you to potential risks ahead of time.

Many people think that two is better than one but not in the case of your anti-virus programs. Having two anti-virus programs will not protect your system better but it may actually make it run worse. When you have two different anti-virus programs running on your system one program acts as if the other program is an intruder and attempts to fight it off as it would a virus. This can cause an array of problems with your computer system.

Running two different anti-virus programs can cause any of the following common problems:

• Computer errors.
• System slow downs.
• Program or computer freeze up.

The good thing is that if this problem does occur it is an easy fix. Simply uninstall the programs and reinstall one program.

Renewing your Anti-virus Program

You will have nothing to worry about if you are simply installing an update to your current anti-virus software that comes from the same manufacturer. Simply follow the manufacturers instructions for download and the current version will override the existing version and your system should run smooth and be protected.

Changing Anti-virus Programs

When you update or change your anti-virus software and are changing from one manufacturer to another, such as from Norton to Viper you first have to uninstall the existing anti-virus program from your system before installing or downloading the new software.

To do this you would go to Add/Remove programs on your system and uninstall your current anti-virus program. Once the program has been removed follow the instructions to install your new anti-virus software.

Take care if you are downloading software from the internet without an existing anti-virus program on your computer, this leaves you vulnerable to a virus. In the event that you have to do this you may want to consider purchasing a CD to eliminate having to download from the Internet.