Anti Virus, Spam and Spy Tools

I updated Spybot Search & Destroy, and after that, booting my PC took an age, with Task Manager showing both Spybot and Avast grinding away. Disabling Spybot seems to have solved the problem. Is there a known conflict with Avast? Would an alternative spyware program be preferable, or would you recommend changing to Microsoft Security Essentials?
Ken Joy
PS: We do miss the technology section and your regular columns.

There's always some risk that programs that work at a low level in the operating system will clash, and some people have complained about slowness with Avast and Spybot. Also, at the end of last year, an Avast update led to it suggesting that Spybot (and other programs) were infected with the Win32:Delf-MZG Trojan. I'm sure many people use the two programs without problems, but there is a vast amount of variation among the billion-plus Windows PCs in the world, so it's hard to pin down the reasons.

ReadMore >>>>

Read Users' Comments (0)