Whether you are using Avira, AVG, Kaspersky, Norton, ESET, Avast, Comodo and etc, all of them slows Windows down and that is a fact. Most Windows users needs an antivirus because it can protect their computer from most viruses that are spreading through network, internet and USB flash drives. Without an antivirus, the user can get infected by virus, spyware, trojan, worms, bots very easily and quickly if they have not much knowledge in computers. Even though I know the importance of an antivirus software, I don’t really like to install them on my computers because of one simple reason only and that is slowing down in everything I do on the computer.

I do fine most of the time without an antivirus because like I said before I always test run and analyze any suspicious file that I downloaded on the Internet on another computer that is running a clean Windows without anything that the virus can steal or damage. However as a tech guy, I am faced with the ultimate question of which is the fastest / lightest / best antivirus? It is really hard to say which one is the best because there are a lot of points that has to be taken into consideration such as the performance, detection and removal.

I have completed 2 performance tests so far and I have to admit that both tests are flawed and inaccurate. The test is fair because the antiviruses are tested on the same computer with the same steps and method. However there are some illogical part of it which I will explain more in detail.

Firstly, the test was done on Windows XP which I would say it is an outdated Windows operating system today.

The application launch time test is flawed because I used Firefox as a test. Some antivirus installs addon to the browser and that would affect the launch time.

As for boot time increase, a reliable third party software (BootLog XP) was used to measure the time taken to boot up Windows, so no problem with that.

Idle memory usage was the biggest headache because I had to do a lot of reading to determine what type of memory that I should use. I used Kiwi Application Monitor before but I recently found out that it does not use the correct memory readings to display the memory usage of the process. If you didn’t know, even the Windows XP Task Manager memory usage numbers are wrong. Taking the memory reading after 10 minutes is also wrong because some antivirus are able to clear its memory usage down to a very low number.

Full scan time is accurate but incomplete because I only scanned once on a clean Windows operating system. First of all, some antivirus implements caching system which won’t scan the same file twice if the file is not modified. Secondly, some antivirus only implements caching on original Windows files and not on third party files. It is important that I launch the full scan twice and include third party files.

Here’s a good news, after realizing all the flaws on my previous test, I have been secretly creating another test which includes more tests such as audio conversion, file compression and decompression, downloading of files, more accurate boot time test and memory usage readings, installation / uninstallation of software, website browsing and etc. The results are more accurate, logical and reliable. The test is performed on Windows 7 and the results will be displayed in easy to read printable graph generated in real time using FusionCharts. This allows me to continue adding any new antivirus test to the charts easily. If everything goes well, the charts should be up in the navigation bar by tomorrow.


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