I am often providing tech support for older computers.
I like and recommend Avast but on very old computers (512 MB RAM, Single Core), full installation hits performance badly.
I am using custom installation and choose not to install Browser protection / Avast gadget / Avast Remote assistance.
I also do not install Mail Shield / P2P shield / IM shield as they redundant, i.e. using same database and File shield scans any accessed file even without those shields installed.
Are there any other components which I can choose not to install without losing detection capability?
Personally I think it a mistake to uninstall the Mail Shield even if don’t use an email program, but use web mail viewed through your browser. In fact I would suggest you leave it installed as it isn’t using resources unless it is actually running and I would go further to suggest that you set the sensitivity to High.
The reasoning for this is, if you have a trojan spambot (they have their own SMTP program), which has got past your defences, either undetected or hidden; then your first indication could be the alerts from the Mail Shield of this activity.
If the User only uses webmail then the Mail Shield wouldn’t be consuming any resources until it is active, which it shouldn’t be unless something is using the monitored email ports.
In addition to what DavidR. suggested, you can also disable upon Custom install of Avast the installation of Chrome as a default browser as well to save on memory.
