The latest lightest Anti-virus?

The litest virus scanners I have tried are:
1. F-Prot
2. Dr. Web - spidey only!
3. AVG/EZ AV - Tie

 

Hello. This is my first post and I registered in order to post in this topic, which I found very interesting.

I am not a security expert and I don’t surf in risky websites, at least not often.
On the other hand I have extensively tested many AVs in my work’s and home’s PC. The one is slow and the other fast with raid0 configuration etc.

F-Prot: I have to clarify something here; Lets compare the f-prot with another AV and any other AV is installed with the default options (i.e. scan all files on open/create/modify/run as well as scan all extensions etc). In this case f-prot is using less ram than any other and maybe is one of the lightest.

But if I configure an AV such as NOD or DrWeb or even Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition (!), to scan files on create/write/modify and not on open open an unchanged/unmodified file), then the difference is noticeable and of course is against f-prot (and any other AV which cannot be configured this way). Of course if you scan your PC regularly and not surfing in dangerous sites there is really no need to have your AV scan the same file over and over again.

Another thing with f-prot is that I never had a virus with it and it is very reliable in this respect and also I appreciate the 2MB footprint. But after so long time using windows and with the new PCs with have gigs of ram, it really doesn’t matter if an application is using 2mb of ram or 10mb of ram. The extra 5 or 15 mb of ram does not slow you down. Programs like admucnher are using 6mb and are really unnoticed. What slows you down is use an AV without smart scanning.
My work’s PC has 500mb, but I never run out of ram – but I do notice a delay when opening applications or run programs and having f-prot in the background. Another disadvantage is that you cannot exclude files and folders, as there is not a control panel. This may be reduces some mb of ram (no gui) but I have some programs open 24/7 and I really don’t want to scan them.

As I said f-prot is really reliable but do not judge the lightness of AVs only according to a couple of mb of ram. If you have at least 500 mb, then there is really no point to have free ram 275 mb instead of 250 mb. If you try to save 10 mb from your daily use of ram its like keeping it in a draw next to your PC. You bought it – use it and enjoy it.

 

Welcome to Wilders, mike

Thanks for your observations. Hopefully an official beta 4 will be released soon for you to try.

 

The tech support answered me that an official beta will be available when it is ready

 

Thanks for the worm welcome.

Looking forward for the new beta.

 

I have been using f-secure for about 2years now and i done think it slows down net speed because i havent used anything else on this pc.

I have tested some avs on my old pc.
the bes where
nod32 but gets to much hype
kaspersky of course
avira antivir
dr web i want to try but couldnt get a trial license for can someone help me getone?

i think you have to go online to get a trial license for home use but i dont know can someone tell me ?

 

Here you can obtain a 20-day demo version of Dr Web which is fully functional.

They even walk you through the procedure

 

i want to test it on my old pc which has no internet acess

 

Download the demo to your other computer which has internet access, then transfer to a CD/DVD/flash-drive.

You can then transfer to your older computer. Further, you can then manually transfer the new updates using this method.

 

I have done that but to get the licence file i need an active internet conneection on my old pc i think.

i installed it on my old pc but it said you got no lincense so wont run so how do i get a licence for it ?

 

You need internet access to get a demo key for Dr.Web.
You cannot copy a trail key accross computers.

 

dam it i cant trial it then because i dont want to uninstall my cureent av just tor try it

 

This shows the last time I used a demo version of Dr Web, when key-files were actually sent out to Home customers

With the latest versions, apparently only Corporate users can now receive a specific key-file.

If you are desperate to try out Dr Web, I would either ask their support if there is a possibility of a demo key-file being sent to you, or trying out the demo on your newer computer.

What is your present AV? Sometimes, IME, you can install Dr Web successfully if you simply disable the present Guard. Therefore, you may not have to uninstall your present AV.

Just ignore the warning Window in the install procedure.

 

my currrent av is f-secure

 

Unfortunately, lodore I have not tried the combination of Dr Web and F-Secure. So I cannot tell you that simply disabling the F-Secure Monitor and then installing Dr Web will work!

If you are happy with F-Secure, and you have been using it for over 2 years, then stick with it. But IME, there are a lot of lighter AV's you could try and I would recommend testing them out on your newer computer rather than your older system.

 

i am happy with f-secures detection rate since its a kav clone. and was thinking about eiether getting kav and outpost or antivir and oupost or kis.

also i dont like the really slow scanning of f-secure. so i was thinking of what i said above.

Blackcat what av do you use?

 

NOD32 and CA EZ Antivirus are the lightest on Windows OS resource usage than any of the other AV programs I have ever used.

 

If I were to crank KAV and NOD up to its max settings (max scanning, etc without Web scanning), who would be lighter than who?

I currently have KAV with max settings and I am curious to how NOD performs with similar settings.

 

Definately hands down NOD32. In order for KAV to run semi-transparently on my pc I need to set it to scan only new or changed files, with cpu spikes occuring whenever I go through windows explorer to my downloads folder.

Alphalutra1

 

Well, the fact is that KAV has support for more packers than NOD32, so this may be the reason it is a little slower in on-demand scanning time.

 

it would rather the scan take longer and it be more thorugh then take less time a miss a virus or other malware and then you can put the scan only new and changed files and tnen it will be faster next time

 

NOD32 employs generic unpacking besides static unpackers so the number of static unpackers is not that important.

 

fair enough

 

Okay, so obvisouly what I posted didn't work.

Anyway, I tested 5 AV's: Avira, KAV, Nod32, Sophos, Avast.

To be honest, I thought they were all light on resources. But in the end I went back to Nod32 (with Sophos as a secondary scanner) because it didn't slow down or disrupt my internet connection, it didn't conflict with my firewall, and it scanned faster than the rest (except for Avira, which I don't think offers as good protection as Nod32 or Sophos).

Each to their own though.