A-squared Free 4.0.0.21 & Avast! 4.8.1296 Home compatible to use together?

[prettychinita]

Hi! I've just read through some of the reviews and comments about this product.. I mean I know I already have MBAM and SAS (Free) as my anti-spyware applications but does it hurt if I add this program (A-squared Free 4.0.0.21) as well to scan for malware? Or does it conflict with Avast! or any of the other programs running?

[normishmael]

No conflicts with Avast.No conflicts with SAS or Malwarebytes.
This is the one on-demand that I always seem to keep.
There is some talk about a high rate of false positives with the new version4,
that has added the Ikarus engine,but i have not found that.
The a2free.exe,that runs in the background,can be disabled if you are on an
admin account,to save a little RAM.(or just leave it on)

The only problem I have is the updates are much slower since the
extra engine was added.

[DavidR]

My question would be what OS are you using ?

The only reason I would suggest a-squared would be if you have an older OS (unlikely as you have MBAM installed) as there are better tools, SAS and MBAM being just two. If it is free resident anti-spyware (which a-squared has) then SpywareTerminator is better (IMHO).

Spyware Terminator Resident scanner (if you use this don't install the toolbar or crawler or the anti-virus module). This also would have no conflict with the passive spywareblaster.

However I would suggest paying the small one off charge and get either SAS Pro or MBAM paid option for resident anti-spyware/malware if it is the resident function you are after as both of these are better than ST or a-squared (IMHO).

[normishmael]

A-Squared Free is on-demand only. There is no real time protection.

[DavidR]

Thanks - Looks like they have changed that since the new version with the included AV, even less reason now to use it as a) you would have to install without the AV element (or possible conflict with avast) and b) no resident protection, which means there are many other on-demand application which I think are better.

[prettychinita]

My question would be what OS are you using ?

The only reason I would suggest a-squared would be if you have an older OS (unlikely as you have MBAM installed) as there are better tools, SAS and MBAM being just two. If it is free resident anti-spyware (which a-squared has) then SpywareTerminator is better (IMHO).

Spyware Terminator Resident scanner (if you use this don't install the toolbar or crawler or the anti-virus module). This also would have no conflict with the passive spywareblaster.

However I would suggest paying the small one off charge and get either SAS Pro or MBAM paid option for resident anti-spyware/malware if it is the resident function you are after as both of these are better than ST or a-squared (IMHO).

ahh.. yah i know.. I'm still thinking whether getting the paid version of SAS..  I'm currently using the ff programs/apps/OS:

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit

AV: Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1296

AS: MBAM, SAS, SpywareBlaster, CWShredder, HiJackThis, Ad-Aware 2008 (not the AdAware AE w/ the "real time protection"), Windows Defender

Firewall: Comodo Firewall w/ D+ (without the AV module)

I'm just worried that Windows Defender isn't a strong "real-time protection" antispyware that's why I'm a bit bothered by it..

[DavidR]

Personally I believe AdAware is a waste of good hard disk space. There is also another adage that you 'can get too much of a good thing.' That really has to include security applications as you end up spending your life serving them in the form of keeping them up to date.

So if you get SAS Pro or MBAM with resident protection I would also get rid of windows defender.

CWShredder and HiJackThis are tools one for a specific problem (cool web search) and the other for analysis, so they aren't specifically anti-spyware. Spywareblaster is passive so not really in the anti-anything category but a immunisation/blocking category to add to IE restricted sites, ActiveX blocking for certain sites/IDs and of course blocking certain cookies. In firefox it only has the cookie protection, but there are add-ons that do that for firefox (CookieSafe).