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Ask Slashdot: Light-Footprint Antivirus For Windows XP?

Posted by timothy on from the tread-lightly-stomp-hard dept.

New submitter Bauermlb writes "I service computers for retired folks in my community, often older machines with modest speed (2 GHz Centron) and modest memory (512 MB). Adding AVAST to one of these machines slows it to a crawl. Any recommendations for a light-duty antivirus program with a low overhead? (These people do not tend to surf 'dirty' sites.)"

2 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. How does this stuff get on Slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    #1: WTF is a Centron? Is it a low-end version of a Decepticon or something?

    #2: Computers that old should be taken out behind the chemical shed and shot.

    "But, but, they're still good!"

    Nope, sorry, wrong. You're just gonna have to accept that. These things are connected to the Internet, which is vastly different now than it was when the machine was built. It's now obsolete and useless, and needs to be replaced.

  2. you're an idiot by slashmydots · · Score: 0, Troll

    Avast isn't heavy on CPU usage. It relies on fast HDD access. All antiviruses do and if it seems like they don't, they're simply not scanning as much as they should. Avast is the king resource usage vs detection rate so you should still use it.
    Oh and to the couple morons above me recommending MSSE, you're completely out of touch with reality. It is the dead last worst rated antivirus in the entire world and a resource disaster. It's the last efficient scanner I've ever seen in my entire life and the disk IO is absurd.