What AV to use?

[hunk-u]

My sis uses Asus eeepc. celeron with 512MB RAM. only 1.6GB SSD.

The problem is it has less than 200MB space left.(haven't install any other software yet)

It was infected with virus before. Now cleaned already.(I think).

Can anybody suggest a small footprint AV that have less than 200MB footprint and won't freeze the netbook?

[safeguy]

Obvious answer would be Avira antivirus. The free version will be just fine for you. To stop the nag screen, refer to this guide:

http://dottech.org/tipsntricks/5812

[ceyfer]

Look for an AV that is specially designed for netbooks.

[safeguy]

Good advise ceyfer. But most 'specially designed' AV for netbooks cost an arm and a leg. Wise thing for you to do is to get a free AV that is lightweight.

The fact is most notebooks can run most 'normal' AV but the heavy blated ones would slow down the notebook to a crawl. That's the least we want here.

Let me quote Raymond's words here:

Now you know which antivirus to recommend to your friend if they ask you which one doesn’t slow the computer down. For me, I think that the best for shareware would be Kaspersky Antivirus 2009 and as for freeware, Avira Antivir. Both is light on memory usage and has very good heuristic detection to detect unknown threats that is not on the virus definition.

Read the full post by Raymond here:

Which FREE Antivirus is the Lightest on System Memory Usage?

If you have the money and wish to get a commercial AV, then Kaspersky might be the right choice for you....

Update1:

Just take note that Kaspersky has come out with Kaspersky Lab's Internet Security Special Edition for Ultra-Portables (an anti-malware product specifically designed for netbooks)....BUT it costs £39.99 (approx $65).

According to the company, Kaspersky Internet Security Special Edition for Ultra-Portables has been "optimized" for netbooks running the Intel Atom, Intel Celeron-M, or VIA C7-M processors that power the current generation of Windows XP-based small-screen wonders.

Read more about it here:

Update 2:

Seems like in terms of performance slowdown, Eset is better than Kaspersky.



*Image courtesy of Eset

http://www.eset.com/solutions/netbooks.php

@hunk-u, take your pick wisely. I hope all these info is useful for you.

[hunk-u]

thanks for the suggestions...I think I'll try avira first..

[Polkadot]

My suggestion would be to go out and spend $20 to double/triple the RAM. Cheapest upgrade to hardware available...also doubles/triples the free choices of software available for AV, and other programs.

[guptesandeep]

My vote is undoubtedly for Avira Antivir free and I would also suggest you to upgrade the RAM to 1GB if possible (although not necessary for Avira).

[hunk-u]

My suggestion would be to go out and spend $20 to double/triple the RAM. Cheapest upgrade to hardware available...also doubles/triples the free choices of software available for AV, and other programs.

Upgrading RAM shouldn't be a problem. My only concern is whether the AV installation / signature database would go beyond the 200MB remaining free space it has left..

[ffwfire]

Why don't you uninstall and delete stuff on the computer you no longer need? That's what I would do.

[LunarWolf]

Download Advance System Care free or CCleaner to clean your PC.

Then install Avira.