Recommend me a light weight AV

Hi guys, and gals.

I need some recommendations for a light weight anti-virus for a family members laptop. This older laptop has a celeron 900 single core and like 4gb ram, so I need something less resource intensive (and hopefully free). This is for an elder person who pretty much only does web browsing and web email. the laptop is running win7 home premium (x64?).

thanks.

 

Avira free.

And then download BGPKiller (it kills the Avira free pop-up that randomly comes from time to time).

Lightweight and does the job.

 

thanks @jaug1337.

 

Happy to help.

This question too me a lot of searching, and I feel like I've achieved a decent answer.

 

Tried them all, the lightest I've used is Avast Antivirus. I use the Pro version to stop popups/ads within avast otherwise the Free version is good.

When installing, choose custom and do not install the extra crap like browser protection, software updater, remote assistance, Avast DNS, etc. just the file shield, web shield, and mail shield and you'll be good to go

See:

AV-Comparatives Performance Test

 

Sweet chart.

Their guide on how they measured it all.. not that impressive, but does the job none the less: http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/avc_per_201510_en.pdf

Avira or Avast seem to rock it.

 

True, when I used Avira, it wouldn't allow mw to login to my router's page (ASUS RT-AC68U) and gave me some system problems, hence why I recommend avast as it strikes the best balance between performance, security, and doesn't mess up your system.

Example: Kaspersky Anti-Virus has been very light lately, but I don't use it because it messes with some apps like in Nero Platinum Suite 2016, sometimes the burn process fails at the end with no reason. When an AV comes in the way of how I use my computer, I chunk it out the window no matter how great its scores on paper appear

 

This. And only install the AV component.
And occasionally boot the ESET SysRescue live image just to be sure.

 

MSE

 

MSE isn't designed to take on all-power attacks.

Only the most harmful are tackled.

IIRC even a Microsoft employee recommends using something else (on top if you'd like) to be safe.

Old but gold semi-source from HowToGeek.

 

and this proves your statement:

 

MSE....for anything Windows 7 and older. Windows Defender for Windows 8 and newer.

What MS employee care to post the link to verify? MSE does far better then Norton or McAfee in detection and those sites are biased from the get go on how they test and what they want to test to get their results they were paid to do. I use MSE and it has no bloatware like Norton. And your own words are have their own irony. "harmful are tackled" isn't that the same as all-power attacks as well.

 

I am not going to answer your question..

Using MSE or Windows Defender on a Macro$hit computer without all the fixes... along their OWN anti-virus is buying a clean 10 year old car with 2 year old tires

 

Holly Stewart:
http://lifehacker.com/microsoft-admits-that-third-party-antivirus-is-more-eff-1441135677

 

I've used Avast for I don't know how many years. Never had an issue and the silent/gaming mode turned on keeps the nags away. Avira is excellent but the nags tick me off.

 

There is a way to shut off the Avira free ads.

 

That was refuted already...

So it looks like all that was written and said wasn't what Microsoft said was it.

 

And yet here you are using Microsoft product...hypocritical aren't we. And the analogy is just baseless...without merits. But in the very same breath they respond.

 

A statement by a security expert who is intimately familiar with the product is "refuted" by a PR flack.

 

I'm aware but I also have never had Avast wreck a system which I can't say the same for Norton, McAfee, BitDefender, AVG, and yes, Avira.

 

Bitdefender FREE. The lightest and the most efficient.

 

touché.

Although I use 4 OS' divided by my WS', yes.. I use Macro$hats product too.

 

And utterly borks Cygwin.

 

Bitdefender will never come near my machines ever again. I've had to reinstall Windows twice because of Bitdefender, it blocks way too many things, I've had it break system restore, and it's just generally annoying. Thanks but I'll be keeping Avast...

 

That and the fact that the free version is not supported on Windows 10.

I'd rather load a virus on my system than to load any Bitdefender product.

Their engine is not bad in terms of detection and speed, but their buggy software since years is what spoil it.

For example, other companies such as Emsisoft and BullGuard use the Bitdefender engine but their AV doesn't cripple the machine or destroy it altogether like Bitdefender does.

 

Yeah but detection rates and performance are lower.

I honestly don't worry about it too much. I don't remember the last time I had a virus.

 

I use Avira on my laptop with win10, and work well...

 

Good stuff peeps. Good timing too. I've been using Norton Internet Security for the past year. I discovered half-way through my subscription year that it was performing some DPC latency-inducing tasks in the background whenever I browsed (Network "Intrusion Prevention" they call it). These latency spikes would cause annoying audio dropouts whenever I was listening to music and browsing at the same time on my laptop. Once I disabled the intrusion prevention, the dropouts mostly disappeared; ironic right? Anyways...my subscription time is up in a few days (had all of it ), so I think I'll happily make the jump to Avast Free AV 2016. I'll take Matrix Leade--I mean Pheonix's advise on this one . No more paying for stuff that will only send me on a troubleshooting goose-chase.

 

When installing Avast or Avira, I always select custom install and only choose the AV component. Don't want no HTTP scanning or mail SSL scanning slowing down anything. I use ABP (Adbock Plus) so all I need is a file scanner.

 

I'll be sure to do that too, thanks.

 

Ok, follow up! Gotta give props to you @Phoenix . Been using Avast Free AV 2016 for a month now and it's truly a lightweight pleasure to use. As advised, I installed only the AV portion (surprised how much "bloat" I had to uncheck during custom installation). Thanks also @Ethrem for your suggestion of using the Silent/Gaming option to avoid infrequent Avast nags that were slowly getting on my nerve. I now couple Avast with random Malwarebytes Anti-Malware scans and Ad-Block + Ghostery for my browser. Couldn't be happier. Lightweight, free and solid. Most importantly, my audio dropouts have disappeared! Frickin' NIS. This will be the second time I'm splitting with Norton, but this split is probably permanent. Good riddance. Thanks again.

 

These kinds of updates warms my cold blooded heart <3

 

Haha, gettin' fuzzy-wuzzy.

 

wanted to see if nod32 is any good!