I am a newbie (as of today) and I’ve just installed avast! home on my Windows XP Home PIII 650MHz 320MB RAM laptop.
At a first glance, this looks like an AMAZING piece of software. I’ve been using Norton for years now and this looks way better. Thanks to the developers for providing this and for free!!!
My biggest hang-up about anti-virus software in general is its drag on system resources. I have actually NOT had any anti-virus software on my laptop because of it - but realize one has to sacrifice some processor speed for security.
The processes ashdisp.exe seems to be using 7,500 K of resources and ashserv.exe uses about 13,000 K of resources. (The other avast! processes don’t seem to take up much.)
I’ve never checked to see how much resources Norton or McAffee use - but is 20MB a fairly reasonable amount of resources to be used by an AV package?
Does changing some of the settings increase/decrease the amount of resources are used? If so, which do you recommend changing?
I think at bootup that Avast is using above average resources but doesn’t take priority when other software need it. In other words, Avast quickly lightens up on the resources after you start running other programs. I suspect that other AV programs work opposite of that because most people only check for it’s resource usage right after start up. I see a lot of posting about how much Norton or McAfee is using at start up but nothing after prolonged use. I used to monitor the memory resources myself using Avast and post the findings…
Basically, I don’t fret too much over the memory usage since Windows does a good job of managing its use. But I have recently installed the freeware Fast Defrag Standard and set it to manage the memory itself and it seems to do a great job on Win98. I normally leave my machine on for days at a time and the program prevents a lot of memory conflicts I had been experiencing after prolonged machine use.
I have used Norton and PC-Cillin in the past with nothing remarkable to state about performance. We use McAfee at work and it is a major slowdown on my machine using such things as MS Outlook and MS Office.
So, in my opinion, your concerns about initial memory usage at start up are valid ones but I woudn’t worry about it. Avast is not prejudice against other programs that need resources when called upon. In the grand scheme of things 20mb at start up isn’t going to make a difference since Windows is constantly managing memory resources.
One other thing I have noticed is that Avast will allocate additional memory after an automatic update but the allocation quickly loses priority through other machine usage. One thing that is bothersome is the twirling blue icon ball everytime Avast is scanning something. It’s cute and many people probably want a visual indicator that Avast is doing something but the only thing I think of some times is that it is using resources to provide the visual aid and may be slowing down the start of a program. Something else as simple as the ball changing colors would be sufficient. I use the free version so I don’t complain about the small things too much. I do believe that Avast has more to offer as a great AV program than the major competitors. Norton and McAfee have a lot of overhead to provide their products and thus don’t have a personal touch to it. Here you get to communicate directly with the staff that are directly involved in the development of the software. There really is nothing else like it on the market.
I probably have the same problems because avast used to slow down my entire machine especially when I first open an applications, files and pop-up menu. A blue ball keeps spinning like it goes crazy and all applications take a little time to open than Norton 2004 and McAfee 8 do, my machine is Laptop Windows XP Home, Celeron 2.2 GHz,256 MB of RAM. But these problems don’t make me stop loving this sleek and robust antivirus application.
If your system meets ( some of ) the following requirements.
You’re always do an safe computing practice
You’re always patch up Windows, IE, Outlook with critical patch
You’re behind a personal firewall
You use Opera, Mozilla instead of IE
You use some spyware applications such as Ad-aware, Spybot S&D, etc.
…
You don’t have to let avast scans all folders, files on you machine as a realtime, you can let avast scans a critical area only ( area that virus can get to your machine ) such as IE’s temporary internet files, Opera’s cache, My Documents folder, Desktop folder, downloaded folder and all removable drives.
Personally, I don’t let avast on-access scanner scans a following folders
C:\WINDOWS*
C:\Program Files*
This can improve a system performance and let my Windows XP gets speed as fast as it can, because files in these 2 folders are always scanned by avast on-access scanner when you open an applicatons, files and will slow down your system. You can simply add a folder that you don’t want them to be scanned by avast on-access scanner by add them in a resident task settings tab like this: standard shield > customize > advanced (last tab)…
I haven’t had any problems since, if I always keep doing a safe computing practice I think this will fine.This may or may not appropriate to you but hope this helps.
Thanks for your prompt response and suggestions for tweaking avast! I will definitely try what you’ve suggested. It makes sense not to scan Windows or Program Files to speed up my system.