About this Video

• Video Title: I Ran Every Antivirus At Once
• Channel: Linus Tech Tips
• Speakers: Linus
• Duration: 00:19:03

Introduction

This Linus Tech Tips video explores whether running multiple antivirus programs simultaneously improves PC security. Linus tests this by installing 14 different antivirus tools on a Windows 11 system and comparing its performance to a system running only Windows Defender. The experiment investigates boot times, shutdown times, application launch speeds, gaming performance, and malware detection capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Performance Impact: Running multiple antivirus programs significantly degrades system performance, causing slow boot times, sluggish application launches, and reduced gaming frame rates. The impact is far greater than simply the sum of individual resource usage.
• Malware Detection: While multiple antivirus programs offer some redundancy in malware detection, the performance penalties far outweigh the benefits. Windows Defender alone proved effective against the tested malware samples.
• Resource Consumption: The cumulative resource usage of multiple antivirus programs dramatically increases CPU and RAM utilization. Even idle processes consume substantial resources.
• Modern AV Solutions: Modern antivirus solutions, especially cloud-based ones like Microsoft Defender, are optimized for performance and provide effective protection with minimal system overhead.
• Recommendation: The video concludes that using a single, well-regarded antivirus program (like Windows Defender) is optimal. For additional scans, it's recommended to use single-time scans rather than running multiple programs concurrently.

The transcript shows that while some antivirus programs detected and quarantined the malware samples, others did not explicitly show a response in the video. The video focuses more on the performance impact than a detailed breakdown of each program's malware detection capabilities. The experiment did, however, highlight that even with multiple antivirus programs running, Windows Defender alone was sufficient to detect and deal with the test malware.