Most effective least memory demanding anti-virus?

[chaslinux]

I've just been asked to put together a Celeron 1.5GHz notebook with 512MB RAM with Windows XP. It's been a long time since I've used Windows on a regular basis so I'm not up on the latest anti-virus information. Because this notebook doesn't have a lot of RAM I want to install a lean, but effective antivirus.

What do members recommend for a low memory system? AVG? Avast? MS Security Essentials?

Are members using separate anti-malware? (Malware Bytes, Adaware, Spybot?)

Cheers and thanks!

 

[~Darkseeker~]

Bloatware: McAfee, Norton

Lean AV: AVG, Avast, MSE, Kasperskey, NOD32

 

[clacker]

I'd go with norton I use it and I think it's fantastic and it hardly takes up any memory at all.

 

[~Darkseeker~]

Norton 360 -> $69

AVG -> Nothing


As a side note, on all MY PCs, i use Avast! Home Edition, and have MBAM installed just incase i need it. On customer PCs, we install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's lean, it's free and it uses next to 0 resources.

I'm running Avast on the rig next to me - Sitting idle AvastSvc.exe and AvastUI.exe are using up 1,260k and 2,476k respectively. In memory terms, that's microscopic these days.

Same is true for MSE, but i don't have it on any home PCs like i said, so i couldn't tell ya figures.


But, 512MB is 542,588KB, so no worries there really.

(512 x 1024 = 542,5580)

 

[krone6]

I'd go with norton I use it and I think it's fantastic and it hardly takes up any memory at all.

But it slows systems down to a crawl. Every single time i uninstall it the entire system speeds up, even if it is loaded with maleware. Not once have i not seen a dramatic speed increase from getting rid of one program.

 

[connchri]

I agree that Norton used to be bloated. But the last two versions, definately not! They did what Microsoft did with Windows: listened to all the complaints about how bloated and in your face it was and released the "Windows 7" equivelant of Norton Anti-virus. It is definately not bloated or resource hungry now and I'll go as far to say that anyone who disagrees either hasn't tried the latest version or is simply lying. It's arguably the most effective, and giving the revenue Symantec makes and it's R&D expendature, it's what you would expect.

I don't know what is the least resource hungry, but I do know that Norton AV 2011 is pretty darn lean. More so than avast free or MS security essentials, in my experienced opinion. You can grab an OEM copy of the software for £10 of ebuyer.com - I recently just did.

 

[iPwn]

I've always used Comodo but it's probably not the best option for your average user... it requires some attention and a little bit of background knowledge on computers to use as it will block individual processes from Running/Accessing the interwebz and requests permission for software to run. You can obviously set it to remember your answers, but if you've never used it... well, it can be a pain.

 

[BrokenAtari]

Aviria is incredibly lightweight and free. It only uses about 4MB of ram. It works well I use it and it detects threats before infection.
I also use threatfire for behaviour detection.

 

[Chipeater]

I've had good performance from AVG, Avast and NOD32.

 

[~Darkseeker~]

I agree that Norton used to be bloated. But the last two versions, definately not! They did what Microsoft did with Windows: listened to all the complaints about how bloated and in your face it was and released the "Windows 7" equivelant of Norton Anti-virus. It is definately not bloated or resource hungry now and I'll go as far to say that anyone who disagrees either hasn't tried the latest version or is simply lying. It's arguably the most effective, and giving the revenue Symantec makes and it's R&D expendature, it's what you would expect.

I don't know what is the least resource hungry, but I do know that Norton AV 2011 is pretty darn lean. More so than avast free or MS security essentials, in my experienced opinion. You can grab an OEM copy of the software for £10 of ebuyer.com - I recently just did.

Symantec emailed us about their latest release, We ran a BETA test for it in the office on the technician machines - as far as i could tell it was no better than it's ever been. I'd take your word for it though, since i haven't used the retail version i suppose i'm not really in a position to comment.

Although, in my mind - a bloatless antivirus that can be downloaded for free is more convenient than something you have to spend a tenner on and wait for it to be delivered.