Two antiviruses might have harmed my pc!

ConvexRumbler

Estimable
Mar 16, 2015
2
0
4,510
Hi, last night I visited a questionable site and decided to run a scan using windows defender.
The scan found nothing, but I wasn't satisfied so I downloaded avast free.
I thought I turned defender off ( I know not to run two antivirus software at once.) but it was not off when I checked later. I ran a scan with Avast and it also found nothing so i was satisifed, however during the scan a pop up message came up trying to download dropbox. I was not impressed by avast's pushing other software on my laptop so I clicked cancel and some message about administrator capabilities came up(I forget what it said). Then after denying dropbox access I uninstalled Avast, and restarted my laptop. The laptop took about 5 minutes to boot up after that(it normally only takes 30 seconds) and in my opinion ran slower when I tested it in games (It may be my imagination but I don't think so.) Did I do anything do damage my laptop?
 
I doubt it, but I'd download and run Malwarebytes, which you should probably have installed anyhow, just to be safe. Actual "viruses" are uncommon these days. Malware and rootkits are far more common. Virus scanners generally won't detect malware and malware scanners usually won't detect viruses. Niether will detect rootkits. Use the following guide as needed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/8263-63-simple-free-guide-removing-malware
 
Solution
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Deleted member 217926

Guest
The Pro version of Malwarebytes scans for rootkits. At least I assume it's only the Pro version as I have it on all 4 of my computers.
 
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Deleted member 217926

Guest
I've used free antivirus software for years and have never had a problem but I consider Malwarebytes worth buying especially when the lifetime licenses are on sale for ~$15.
 

Vosgy

Estimable
Nov 24, 2014
26
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4,590
Sadly I think all of the "free antivirus" programs now advertise things so the company can make money, though just not going to questionable websites is the best policy. I'm sure windows defender is supposed to turn itself off if there is another antivirus running on the machine, since I don't think it can be uninstalled as it is now bundled with Windows 8.
 
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Deleted member 217926

Guest
Do as darkbreeze recommended and download Malwarebytes and run the scanner. Then do the same with their antirootkit software. Never hurts to be sure.

Then I would recommend Avira as a good, free antivirus solution. They are always rated the best in the AVComparatives independent testing and it's relatively ad free.

Windows Defender is about as good as not having any protection at all. It usually fails in most independent testing with detection rates around 60% with the better free programs in the 97%-99% range.
 
Agreed, if you feel Defender isn't good enough, which is what I use along with the paid version of Malwarebytes (Well worth the cost, which is minimal compared to just about any other solution.), then Avira is the best choice in my opinion. It's what I used for years until MS began fully supporting Defender at which time I began using that as it seemed to use a bit less resources than Avira, but Avira is probably a slightly more reliable virus protection module.

Again though, malware and rootkits are far more prevalent these days than actual viruses. You still want virus protection, but the majority of infections these days are malware, adware, rootkits and non-specific heuristic infections that don't necessarily adhere to the more common conventions of viral infections.