A year ago, I decided to try Avast Internet Security Pro and at first, I really liked it and decided to pay for a years subscription. (One of the reasons for doing so was because it came with a firewall, which my computer really needs.) Within that year, my PC began to slow down considerably; taking ages to start up and I think Avast is the cause. It takes half an hour for my PC to fully start up due to avast being a dick and auto-updating/scanning at startup (a feature I can’t seem to disable.) It also takes my browser five minutes to start up, two if I wait the half hour it takes for avast to run it’s “morning routine.”
Now my subscription has run out and I’m trying to figure out whether or not it’s worth the renewal and if not, what do I replace it with?
Do note, the PC in question is old as dirt; a 2006 HP media PC with Win XP and a measly 1gig ram and 250g of HD space.
Any suggestions?
P.S. Reformatting isn’t an option because I don’t have the OS disc and there are programs on here that I’ve lost the installers and can’t find anymore so I can’t replace them.
Aside from defragmentation, yes, I have. I’m afraid to defrag because this PC is old and can barely handle updates anymore. As it is, I had to unplug the PC yesterday and start it manually, twice. I have no idea what defragging will do to it.
I also haven’t been able to upgrade to Service pack 3 without it nearly turning off forever.
You’re lucky essexboy is already a part of your thread. Not being able to install Service Pack 3 would indicate some long-standing issues, possibly, and updating to the newest version of avast! is likely to be a problem for you until these other issues are fixed first. Can your system take another gigabyte of ram for a total of two GB’s? Two GB’s is XP’s sweet spot, just as 4 GB’s is for Win 7.
Ad programs such as Conduit, MyWebSearch, Ask toolbar, etc., should not be on your system and will have an adverse impact on system performance if not removed. essexboy can help with that.
You could also set Avast to load after windows services, that may cut down the time. But, I reckon at the very least empty your temporary files and disable all non-required start programmes
That’s going to be a problem. I know I am need of more RAM, it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for years but I’d have to pay someone to do it for me as well as the part, since I am not all that savvy with the inner workings of the machine and we can’t really afford that, especially right now. (Money’s always tight this time of year…)
As for those programs, no need to worry about those. I may not know how to put computers together or add parts but I know very well what programs to avoid. I never liked add ons on my browser anyway. Take up too much space.
BTW, would this trick work with my PC and would it be safe to use full time?
I’ll run CCleaner but that never helps much. Avast is also the only program that runs with start up. Besides, wouldn’t changing that setting mean I’d have to manually click on the avast icon to get it running? That’s what the setting menus implied.
And for the moment, I’m in dire need of some alternatives because I’ve gone without protection for five days and only two remain for the deal but as mchain said, this may not be an option if I can’t up my ram.
You have almost an 8 year old PC. If it is taking 1/2 hour to boot you have more issues than Avast. I would purchase a new PC. Even a low end HP would be better than what you have.
