Non-free MalwareBytes & SpybotS&D vs. Microsoft Security Essentials

Question

After years of benefiting from the free versions of MalwareBytes and SpyBot S&D, it's time I contributed a paltry sum to them by buying their home versions (and it is home where I use them). However, they come with extra protection, whereas I only used the free versions for on-demand scans of selected files. Am I at risk of creating conflicts with Microsoft Security Essentials and the native Windows 7 firewall by upgrading to paid versions of MalwareBytes and Spybot S&D?

I posted this to wilderssecurity.com yesterday.

Answer 1

Both these products do not conflict with the Windows firewall or with Defender, and have been crafted to work alongside the Windows products.

My only worry with having three run-time protections active at the same time, would be the triple chances for false positives.

If you would need to exempt some folder from these protections, as is the case with some too-clever utilities such as Windows Sysinternals, you would need to do it three times.

If one of these utilities will quarantine a product you need, you would need to check three products to return it from quarantine.

I would therefore advise not to activate run-time protection in all three products at the same time, leaving at least Defender running (as it is the best integrated into Windows).