Least resource hungry & free anti-virus

Hi all,

Which is the least resource hungry & free anti-virus software available (for XP). The machine (netbook-vaio) in question has 1GHz processor and 512 RAM (with XP-PRO, SP2).

I have tried F-Secure, AVG for which I have licenses and AVIRA free edition. The machine is virtually unresponsive with F-Secure and AVG. AVIRA is Ok, but its still uses the highest resources in the machine.

So, when I load my web-browser and AVIRA is running in the background, the machine is not very fast. Without the antivirus the machine works like a champ.

I use the machine just for basic web-browsing and word-processing, so I am not looking for too much security, basic security should be enough. Please advice.

Cheers,

Jay

 

You would get a better response if you put this in the appropriate forum: Security and Anti-Virus Software

Panda Cloud is light on system impact, but not much lighter than avira.

 

Moved........

 

Tryout Avast

 

I second.

Panda Cloud AV again, is a great suggestion. But i would suggest waiting for v1.1.

 

Look at the free AV sticky. The four listed are pretty much your choices when it comes to free AV. I am not sure switch is the lightest (Avast or Avira?), but it sounds like you don't mind trying things out.

 

Thanks guys, what about NOD32...any more suggestions..Panda cloud looks good.

 

Well, that's not free. Avira and MSE have both worked well for me, although personally I use Norton Internet Security 2010 on my T500 - NIS09 and NIS10 both have very low system resource usage. Eset Smart Security has worked well for me in the past as well.

 

Nod32 is not free (albeit, it's good).

Regarding antivirus programs that are light, have high detection rates and are free, any one of the following 3 will do you just fine:

Avira 10
Avast 5
Microsoft Security Essentials

 

Well, nothing can beat Common Sense, on any OS. Zero memory footprint, zero CPU load, and superior virus protection to boot.

 

I opted for panda cloud-liked the concept and its eating very little resources

 

Microsoft Security Essentials is great IMO

 

Avira has been very light on my system. I've been a very happy user...

But lately, when I upgraded to Avira 10, it's been a bit less intuitive to use. I dunno what happened.

So, is MSE really simple to use? Is it very effective? And is it really light?

 

MSE is extremely easy to use... You won't even know it is there if you allow auto updates. It updates in the background without bothering you with a dialog box.

It seems light on resources. I have an older XP machine and it has never appeared to take too many resources. My AVG prior to MSE didn't seem to bother my machine too much either, however, the update dialog box every day was annoying. Plus, I got tired of the ads I was getting because I was using the free version. MSE gives me no ads and I am serious when I say that after you install it, you won't even know it is there.

 

Avira Antivir Personal 9 and Avast! 5 Home Edition. Both of these are very light resources and they're FREE! Protections are superb too!

Else, you can try Microsoft Security Essential. It's slightly heavier than the 2 mentioned above. It's performance/protection is on par with them.

 

I'm using Panda Cloud AV as well....seems very light, wanted to check out it's nano engine...seems good