AntiVir Guard Classic Edition + Avast! Home without Standard Shield

[Marmot]

Hi, I stumbled upon an idea, which both Avast! and AntiVir team wouldn't recommend.

As you know, AntiVir offers resident protection named AntiVir Guard only while Avast! provide their users with Internet and Outlook/Exchange Mail, Network and Web Shield On-access Scanners as well as Standard Shield.  If we turn off Avast! Standard Shield and replace it with AntiVir Guard, then, basically, all the files from the net will be scanned by both engines.  In fact, I installed both of them and they seem to be working together happily.  They don't seem to be eating too much resource, either.

Now, could you tell me what can be drawbacks to this apparently good idea of double protections?  I could be able to install BitDefender and CalmWin since both of them don't have resident protections but I guess it would be overkill.

Edit - Update

Before anyone adventurous tries to do what I am doing, I'd say that there is a message from Avast! pops up every time I start my genie pig PC.  The message is titled as "avast!: Incompatible AV Software Running" and continues as below.

avast! detected that the following program is running.  AVIRA (H+BEDV) AntiVir

The on-line access scanner module of this program and the on-access scanner of avast! CANNOT be active at the same time.

As a result, the avast! main on access scanners - Standard Shield, P2P Shield and Instant Messaging Shield - were disabled.

Is there any way to disable this pop-up since both Avast! and I know what we are doing.  In fact, I don't use any P2P and IM apps at all.  I think I can get better protection from Avast! watching both mail and browsing apps.

[Tarq57]

Had the same idea, (due to Avira's reportedly* better trojan and general detection), tried it, got the same popup, didn't like it, couldn't see a way round it, wasn't confident about it, uninstalled Avira. Good luck, though!

*AV comparatives testing

[Marmot]

Somehow, I thought I was not alone. 

The situation is funny since we don't have problem with compatibility but with the notification.  Since Avast! is one of the most customizable antivirus, isn't there an option of turning off the notification?  If not, how about making the option, Avast! team?

[DavidR]

You won't know if you have incompatibility until it bites you in the a** many will tell you that two resident AVs no matter how crippled install virtual device drivers and it is these that could collide possibly causing a system lock-up.

If you are concerned about trojan detection then there are anti-spyware programs Ewido, a.k.a. AVG-AS or a-squared that work with avast without conflict. So combined with avast this would improve over all detection without risk of potential conflict without having to try and cripple avast!

[Marmot]

You won't know if you have incompatibility until it bites you in the a** many will tell you that two resident AVs no matter how crippled install virtual device drivers and it is these that could collide possibly causing a system lock-up.

If you are concerned about trojan detection then there are anti-spyware programs Ewido, a.k.a. AVG-AS or a-squared that work with avast without conflict. So combined with avast this would improve over all detection without risk of potential conflict without having to try and cripple avast!

What I am doing is to let Avast! watch the files from the net with AntiVir dealing with local disks.  Theoretically, this should work and it is working.  As you see in the message, Avast! knows the reason and even able to disable some of its functions.  So, it is only notification I don't need.

[DavidR]

The problem is the main scanning engine used by all the resident providers is ashServ.exe so that is still required even if you disable standard shield so it will most likely still have the registry legacy keys and virtual device drivers. Personally I wouldn't do this when there are other options as I mentioned.

[mauserme]

Hi Marmot,

Your idea is not entirely new.  You should read this thread which addresses the same topic

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=22241.0

and

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=22241.0

which discusses an avast! alert for Win32:Small-1700 you might receive when updating Antivir.

I (and a few others) have done the reverse of what you're trying to do by making the registry changes outlined in the first thread above, but Antivir updates have become a bit inconvenient.

[Marmot]

Thanks for the info, mauserme.

Then, it seems that Avast! is doing better.  Both AntiVir Guard and Avast! providers other than those disabled seem to be working fine.  Updates are working fine, too.  Both Avast! and AntiVir icons on the task bar confidently sit together.    The only annoyance here is the notification message. 

[mauserme]

No problem.

Avast looks for Antivir in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services  Renaming the Antivir key effectively hides it from avast! and should do away with the notification.

[Marmot]

Thanks, again, mauserme.  Done that.

Now everything is O.K.  No notification message any more.    Instant Messaging/P2P Shield/Standard Shield providers are grayed out as usual and I won't touch them.

However, basically, this is experimental by nature.  I am doing this after a certain preparation such as backups.  Rather, DavidR's opinion is commonsense.  With future changes with these apps, things may go wrong.  Don't tell me that I didn't warn you. 

[Lisandro]

Instant Messaging/P2P Shield/Standard Shield providers are grayed out as usual and I won't touch them.

But they work for me... This does not seem to be related to avast+Antivir 

[Marmot]

Instant Messaging/P2P Shield/Standard Shield providers are grayed out as usual and I won't touch them.

But they work for me... This does not seem to be related to avast+Antivir 

You brave man! 

O.K.  I turned on all the providers and they appear to be working - even Standard Shield.  However, I am not sure if they are really working.  I found Internet Mail and Web Shield providers are working with eicar test files but I am not sure if Standard Shield is working.  Only AntiVir Guard warned that there is a "virus."  Since I don't have messengers and P2P apps, I cannot test the other two providers, which Avast! turned off when it find them.

[Lisandro]

I turned on all the providers and they appear to be working - even Standard Shield.

I never disabled avast... Antivir is the second, non-resident scanner and not the contrary.
Why do you think that the residents are still on? Because Antivir detects them? Well, there are low lever drivers, Windows services, etc. that could interfere with Antivir, so...

Only AntiVir Guard warned that there is a "virus."

So, most probably, the avast residents are off 

[Marmot]

Only AntiVir Guard warned that there is a "virus."

So, most probably, the avast residents are off 

Probably for the better since a conflict between two resident scanners would be much less desirable.

However, no matter may a user think which anti-virus "primary" or "secondary", the current version of Web Shield and Internet Mail and Outlook/Exchange Mail Shield providers are able to work with the current version of AntiVir Guard at least on my genie pig PC.