Should I run a spyware checker and virus scanner simultaneously?

[presbp]

I have Spybot Search and Destroy and AVG Free Edition and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to run them at the same time?

I am pretty sure it wouldn't be a good idea to run a defrag or a disk cleanup while running those though.. I don't know though.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

It shouldn't really matter. You are right about defragmenting: if possible, nothing should run when you defrag. Especially not heavy disk I/O apps.

[-pops-]

I've found that simultaneous scans take much more time to complete than doing them consecutively.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I've found that simultaneous scans take much more time to complete than doing them consecutively.

It can, but it doesn't necessarily have to be - find out by trial and error.

But what I always do when doing scans of large number of files is to (temporarily) disable my virus scan engine.

[Thos]

I have Spybot Search and Destroy and AVG Free Edition and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to run them at the same time?

I am pretty sure it wouldn't be a good idea to run a defrag or a disk cleanup while running those though.. I don't know though.

I run both of those at the same time without a problem. You are right about defragging on it's own though.

Thos.

[Scarecrow Man]

It will not hurt anything. It will however, as others have said make it take longer.

Both an anti-virus and spyware scan your hard drive for files, periodically loading one into memory to scan deeper. A Defragment however, will load every file into memory and move it to a different location on the hard drive, block by block. This is why it must be run without any other programs.

[mcb2001]

i always run both simultanious, cause i go to sleep when i start them, and no way i am getting up again, when one is stopped to start the other :-)

But anyways, this could easily be done otherwise with a delayed start of the second scanner, f.x. say it takes 1 hour 12 minutes to do a full system scan, then make the other start 1 hour 30 minutes after.

This adds 18 for small delays, system memory clean-ups (garbage collect) and so, but in the end proberly would save you overall time, cause, in my experience adds arround 50% extra scan time to run both at the same time...

(50% of 1hour 12minutes is 36 minutes, which is the double of the 18 minutes i chose as delay, and say both scans take approximatly the same time, i shave off a good half hours work, and in all thats about 1/5 of the total scan time!)

[andsome]

It will not hurt anything. It will however, as others have said make it take longer.

Both an anti-virus and spyware scan your hard drive for files, periodically loading one into memory to scan deeper. A Defragment however, will load every file into memory and move it to a different location on the hard drive, block by block. This is why it must be run without any other programs.

If this is so why don't I get problems with Diskeeper 10? I used to have it set to scan as and when it deemed necessary, but now have it set to defrag C drive every two hours and D drive every four hours. All that appears to happen is that if I run anything else when Diskeeper is running, the computer slows down just a little. No harm ever appears to have occurred. I always do make a point however to only run one Anti Malware scan at a time.

[andsome]

It will not hurt anything. It will however, as others have said make it take longer.

Both an anti-virus and spyware scan your hard drive for files, periodically loading one into memory to scan deeper. A Defragment however, will load every file into memory and move it to a different location on the hard drive, block by block. This is why it must be run without any other programs.

If this is so why don't I get problems with Diskeeper 10? I used to have it set to scan as and when it deemed necessary, but now have it set to defrag C drive every two hours and D drive every four hours. All that appears to happen is that if I run anything else when Diskeeper is running, the computer slows down just a little. No harm ever appears to have occurred. I always do make a point however to only run one Anti Malware scan at a time.

Just checked carefully right through all options etc in Diskeeper 10, and found that it is set to suspend defragmentation if another process runs.

[cozofdeath]

Just checked carefully right through all options etc in Diskeeper 10, and found that it is set to suspend defragmentation if another process runs.

Vista's defrag does sort of the same. I guess it lowers the disk priority. But its seen as a new feature. Supposedly Vista's defrag will be released again in sp1 and the official server build and will have more optimizations.