Looking for an Antivirus program with a low processing power cost

Dara Robinson

Hi Guys,

I was hoping to find somewhere in the internet a guide to the amount of processes or even a guide to the amount of processing power required for the main Antivirus software thats out there at the moment.

Sofos anti virus, for example, uses 3 processes only. I know this is good but its intended for Buisnesses and also while its supposed to be expensive I cant even find out how much it costs and the websites refer you to resellers ..

AVG8 Anti virus, well I could only find one process but I don't believe that for a second.

Norton, I know that this is one of the most resource hungry programs out there.



Anyways, I was just looking for make an informed decision on which software to use and I wanted to find out how much resources they would be using as its possible that this might sway my decision.


Any help would be great,

Thanks

Malice

I highly recommend that you install Avast. I've used it for years on a variety of both low and high powered machines.

Looking at Task Manager right now, I think it's running these processes:

ashDisp.exe - 1,912k
ashMailServ - 1,000k
ashServ - 17,288k
ashWebSv - 12,452k
ashUpdSv - 244k

for a total of 32,796Mb. As for processing power, sometimes a system can get a bit sluggish when it's doing an update but other than that I've never really noticed it slowing things down.

rubadub

I am running AVG on mine and a few mates got it too. I was pleading with my father to get rid of mcafee. His system had ground to a halt, it is an old celeron, just out when XP was new, he was all set to get a new system it was so slow. Got rid of mcafee and stuck on AVG and it is was like a new machine!

Another mate's norton sub ran out and he stuck on AVG with the same results.

Both AVG & Avast get great reviews, dunno which is lower on overheads, tried avast before and seemed fine.

What I like about them is they just do the job, while the likes of norton & mcafee are constantly popping up windows saying "We got rid of this & that, aren't we great, you would be screwed without us". People believe all this and so are fooled into thinking they must pay for a decent setup.

What other stuff do people use to protect the machine? I have adware and spybot.

Overheal

I tried running AVG on a clean 256MB WinXP build. The machine grounded to a halt under the strain.

Biggins

Avast I would go with for low spec pc.

SouperComputer

NOD32, from ESET. It's written mostly in assembly language, thats about as efficient as you are going to get. It does this while providing some of the most effective heuristics around IMO.

Counting the amount of processes isn't a very good way to judge, if anything, its an advantage to have multiple processes on multi-threaded systems, depending on how it has been written

Thomas_S_Hunterson

SouperComputer wrote: »

NOD32, from ESET. It's written mostly in assembly language, thats about as efficient as you are going to get. It does this wile providing some of the most effective heuristics around IMO.

Counting the amount of processes isn't a very good way to judge, if anything, its an advantage to multiple processes on multi-threaded systems, depending on how it has been designed

+1

PogMoThoin

SouperComputer wrote: »

NOD32, from ESET. It's written mostly in assembly language, thats about as efficient as you are going to get. It does this while providing some of the most effective heuristics around IMO.

Counting the amount of processes isn't a very good way to judge, if anything, its an advantage to have multiple processes on multi-threaded systems, depending on how it has been written

+1 also, I'm using it on 2 pc's

KatCookie

im on AVG 7 .. the free version.. (fathers too cheap to pay) and its very bad when you start it up, i couldnt figure out why it'd be like the old win98 So slow.. everything taking ages to open.. then i realised that it scanned first thing after starting up.. so now i just let it scan every day or two (it hardly needs to scan first thing EVERY DAY? does it?)

i'm also looking for a good, quick reliable all in one anti-everything.. for free of course!

PogMoThoin

KatCookie wrote: »

im on AVG 7 .. the free version.. (fathers too cheap to pay) and its very bad when you start it up, i couldnt figure out why it'd be like the old win98 So slow.. everything taking ages to open.. then i realised that it scanned first thing after starting up.. so now i just let it scan every day or two (it hardly needs to scan first thing EVERY DAY? does it?)

i'm also looking for a good, quick reliable all in one anti-everything.. for free of course!

Updates for Avg 7.5 end on 31st December 08, You have to upgrade to the new Avg 8 if You want to stay protected

97i9y3941

you can turn off the scanning in the avg,you can set it to never scan

Tallon

SouperComputer wrote: »

NOD32, from ESET. It's written mostly in assembly language, thats about as efficient as you are going to get. It does this while providing some of the most effective heuristics around IMO.

Counting the amount of processes isn't a very good way to judge, if anything, its an advantage to have multiple processes on multi-threaded systems, depending on how it has been written

+1

Using this on all PC's and on every family members PC. its by far the best

rubadub

Fred83 wrote: »

you can turn off the scanning in the avg,you can set it to never scan

Yes, it comes with daily scanning scheduled as default. I turn this off, and do a full scan upon install.

Am I right in thinking from then on it is actively working and scanning stuff? I backed up a mates files on HD and attached to my PC, I dragged some across and AVG picked up viruses straight away. If it is actively scanning stuff you are downloading and dragging across then I cannot see the point of a daily scan.

The only reason I see to do it would be if you downloaded a virus last week which was unknown at the time, and so it was not detected, in which case an updated version doing a daily or weekly scan would then pick it up. Is that the only reason for it?

97i9y3941

rubadub wrote: »

Yes, it comes with daily scanning scheduled as default. I turn this off, and do a full scan upon install.

Am I right in thinking from then on it is actively working and scanning stuff? I backed up a mates files on HD and attached to my PC, I dragged some across and AVG picked up viruses straight away. If it is actively scanning stuff you are downloading and dragging across then I cannot see the point of a daily scan.

The only reason I see to do it would be if you downloaded a virus last week which was unknown at the time, and so it was not detected, in which case an updated version doing a daily or weekly scan would then pick it up. Is that the only reason for it?

yes that would be correct,viruses are always changeing so it is very important to update your virus killer every day,and it does be activtely scanning all time too,it has caught some viruses for me at times,purpose of the scan too is just probably for extra safety,or even maybe for scanning old floppys or cds that are not yours?

rubadub

Fred83 wrote: »

purpose of the scan too is just probably for extra safety,or even maybe for scanning old floppys or cds that are not yours?

Yes, but when I put in my mates drive and tried to copy stuff on it caught them. I expect if you try to run a exe direct from a cd it would scan it too. Mine updates daily too just fine. I think it is still to catch ones that are brand new. But I also figure if these new ones try to execute, and it has updated (but not fully scanned) then it should pick them up.

NOD32, from ESET. It's written mostly in assembly language

What do you reckon the best of the freebies is so?

PaddyTheNth

Another vote for NOD32.

Free-wise, I've used both paid version of AVG 7.5, free AVG 8.0 and am currently using Avira. Avira is miles lighter on resources/startup and is a tad quicker with regard to on-demand scanning in my experience.

rubadub

PaddyTheNth wrote: »

Free-wise, I've used both paid version of AVG 7.5, free AVG 8.0 and am currently using Avira. Avira is miles lighter on resources/startup and

Never even heard of it before. Dunno why! 2nd most popular on download.com

1,649,472 downloads 1. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
535,592 downloads 2. Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus
388,138 downloads 3. Avast Home Edition

http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10901492

PaddyTheNth

rubadub wrote: »

http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10901492

The nag screen is easily disabled (dozens of results on google) and the update window which is visible at update-time by default can be toggled invisible in preferences.

97i9y3941

rubadub wrote: »

Yes, but when I put in my mates drive and tried to copy stuff on it caught them. I expect if you try to run a exe direct from a cd it would scan it too. Mine updates daily too just fine. I think it is still to catch ones that are brand new. But I also figure if these new ones try to execute, and it has updated (but not fully scanned) then it should pick them up.

so true,one that springs to mind is the infamous ms blaster worm that infected early editions of xp,they had to release a patch for it!