Abandoned

One observation that I have made at forums is the use of excessive security applications in real time. Some people are just security enthusiasts who like to try everything and will have hips, 3rd party firewall, av, virtualization etc.. running all the time. There are some other people though that are not enthusiasts per se, but fairly new to pc security and are just trying to secure their pc as best they can. I think a lot of these users that are not experienced with using these apps in combination are going overboard a little because of bad advice and/or inexperience. Running too many of these apps in real time can cause all sorts of issues that are unnecessary. Not to mention a big performance hit can result. The threats to your pc are out there and they are real. With that said though, malware infections IMO are usually caused more by user carelessness and/or ignorance versus what security app(s) they are using. You need security if you are on the internet no doubt about it, but do you know what sites to stay away from, are you downloading files from reputable sources? Are you being cautious about suspicious email in your inbox? If you are surfing the web and get redirected to a page and a dialog box pops up asking you to do a virus scan giving you the options yes, no, cancel, do you try to click cancel or close the box, or do you open task manager and kill your browser? If you are getting a lot of spam then who are you giving your email address out to? Are you letting them give your email address out to their partners? The point I am trying to make is that educating yourself to pc security in general and how and why infections occur and how to avoid infection is more important than loading your pc up with a whole slew of security apps that are unnecessary.