Uninstall Symantec, it will bog your system down. AVG has a small footprint and works reasonably well.

Running two at once will always create conflicts   

Dump Norton, it's evil. I switched to AVG as well.

For the two replies above thank you..... however, would it be ok if I only make Symantec inactive and have AVG active in my system instead... without uninstalling Symantec that is..

As an antivirus it must start automatically when Window starts, as well as having made important registry changes. Attempts to disable this and other features are aborted...considering these are actions that a virus would try. So it is necessary to completely uninstall and be sure to reboot after.

Uninstall Symantec, it will bog your system down. AVG has a small footprint and works reasonably well. Running two at once will always create conflicts [/quote] Agreed 1000% Symantec by itself without other antivirus installed does cause many system & program conflicts [quote]Dump Norton, it's evil. I switched to AVG as well.

Agree 1000%
I have tried several antivirus separately on this computer and without doubt AVG uses the least resources and I have NEVER had any conflicts.

It's My Secret

Running two at once will always create conflicts

I learned this the hard way.

Go with AVG or Avast. Both are free and very good.

One plug for Avast..aside from working well with email, P2P programs, and messenger...you can set it to scan in screensaver mode and in boot mode.

Answering Your main question : Running 2 AVs at the same time may extremly slowing things down and they even conflict each other. It even can be counterproductive to do that in terms of virus-protection.

Man, I over slept! Like the folks above have stated, you don't want to run two anti virus programs. Trust experience, it's alot better than what can happen. As far as which one you run, AVG is very popular, that doesn't make it the best free one. I run it because it works and I have not had any problems. Find one that you like and is recommended by other users.   

I ran Nortons and AVG at the same time. While I didn't experience any conflict ( that I knew of or noticed ) - the first time I hit a website that had a trojan - AVG popped on in 1/2 second - grabbed it - and deleted it . Needless to say I kept AVG and un-installed the Norton's I paid $100.00 for.
I just got a new laptop with Norton's installed. First thing I did was uninstall it and install the free version of AVG.

Try f-secure antivirus, works for me   

Using firefox instead of IE makes it so you dont get viruses, also having Sygate Personal Firewall Pro, thats what I use, and ive never ever had a virus.

WOW! I never expected many recommendations (and anti-norton movement ). LOL! Anyway, thanks a lot everyone.... I am going to uninstall Symantec now....

Windows Vista now warns if you try and install 2 at once.