Is three too many?

[RonJohn]

Somehow in the past few weeks I've installed Advanced System Care Free 8, Advanced Uninstaller Pro and my old standby CCleaner, all of which seem to be working overtime to protect my laptop from the various evils out there. My question is regarding having all three on my PC. Could their constant monitoring be slowing down my PC? Does it hurt to have all three seemingly running in the background? If so, is there one of these that is thought more highly of than the others? I also have AVG for my virus detection and Malewarebytes and Spybot for spyware. Is all of this overkill? If so, which ones should I retain. Thanks in advance for any help.

[SpywareDr]

The more layers of defense you put up, the harder it is to get through.

FWIW ...

Right now I'm using Trend Micro. For brief details as to why, see this chart: Statistics - AV-Comparatives > October 2014. For even more info, see this article: Windows Secrets > Help for picking your next anti-malware tool - By Michael Lasky on November 27, 2014.

I also am currently using:

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (anti-malicious software) helps protect you from new online threats that antivirus can't detect.

MalwareBytes Anti-Exploit helps prevent exploits from compromising vulnerable code.

CCleaner is an easy to use one click cleaner, with other tools for advanced users.

WinPatrol detects and helps prevent changes to important Windows settings.

SpywareBlaster helps prevent the installation of spywae and other potentially unwanted software.

Double-check and make sure you have installed all available Microsoft Windows Updates. To load the Windows Update App on Windows 7, click Start, type in wuapp and press [Enter]. In Windows 8, from the start (Metro) screen simply type wuapp and press [Enter].

Secunia's PSI (Personal Security Inspector) helps keep track of non-Microsoft programs that need to be updated.

And Microsoft's EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit) anti-hack tool helps raise the bar against attackers gaining access to computer systems. (Advanced users).

[RonJohn]

I am pretty consistent about keeping all of my PC's updated with the windows updates. The two "Advanced" programs are pretty similar. Are you familiar with them SpywareDr? I have used CCleaner for years. These other two have several other components. The Uninstaller automatically scans my PC daily looking for junk files, viruses, etc. The system Care program prompts me every two days or so to run their various scans. I believe each of them has some sort of memory optimizer. Just wondered whether I am just duplicating services and actually slowing down my PC by having them run in the backgound. This laptop is kind of wonky. Some days it is lightning quick and others it is maddingly slow.

[SpywareDr]

No, I have not personally used either of those two programs. Since they, and ccleaner do different things though they shouldn't conflict with each other. However, all running programs/processes will slow your computer, some very little and others quite a bit. Windows Task Manager can show you which ones are hogging CPU, RAM etc.

[fink]

Advanced System Care Free 8 looks like it's partially a registry cleaner type program. They usually cause more problems than they allegedly fix. I'd avoid using that part of it.

.

[SpywareDr]

I agree.

[dneilson]

Me too.