A while ago I set up my very old PC for my granddad so he could learn how o use the internet. I wiped pretty much everything and left him with Word, Google Earth and Internet Explorer. I installed ZoneAlarm firewall and Avast anti-virus.

Went round last night and h was complaining about it being very slow, which it was – I did the task manager thing, looked at the running processes and saw that Avast was very resource hungry and pretty much had the CPU running at over 90% all the time. i disabled it and things sped up quite considerably.

So question is, which anti-virus should I install for him that won’t have a massive effect on speed and isn’t too resource hungry? He doesn’t download anything, load files from anywhere, he just uses it to read news, look at Wikileaks etc.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/collective-opinion-on-avg-anti-virus

If you can train him not to click on pop-ups, or open mail from Nigerians I’d be inclined to say nothing. I can’t recollect the last time I got a virus from web browsing.

Further – how old? memory? processor? If you’re running current versions of software they’re typically designed with current-ish machine specs in mind so may just not be capable of running on old equipment without causing the problems you mention. It might just be better to buy a replacement 2ish yr old base unit on ebay for £100 or so.

I’ve had good results with Avira on older hardware.

For maximum performance: whatever you go with, do a full system scan on install, then set it up to scan on write and not read, and disable scheduled scans.

Get rid of ZoneAlarm, with modern routers its time is past.

There’s also the possibility that it’s using resources to fight an infection, of course. Do an online virus scan (the ones at ESET and Trend are both very good), and run Malwarebytes against it.

I used Avast for years but abandoned it as it became more resource hungry, I’ve tried MSE and Avira which are both good AV programs (I preferred MSE) but in terms of lightweight AV scanners I’ve recently converted to Comodo which is great but a tad annoying to use to begin with as it “learns”. Definitely get rid of zonealarm.

Microsoft Security Essentials, set it, forget it.

I use Comodo internet security on both my netbook and the gf’s desktop. Both run win xp.

I went through all sorts before going to the all-in-one Comodo, which turned out to be very very quick compared to various combinations of AVG, zonealarm, avast, avira, win firewall etc….

Avira +1. Its all we use on ours and customers systems, steer the hell away from AVG 2011, nothing but grief.

nod32

Odd about Avast. I use it at home and work with no problem. It’s a bit hungry when it updates but otherwise pretty good. Spyware Dr is the worst I’ve tried for CPU use. Malwarebites is OK but it’s not worth paying as all it usefully does over the free version is update

Some really good advice there thanks. The machine is about 5/6 years old easily and runs XP. For the short term I’ve told him not to click on anything or open any emails from people he doesn’t know.

However, when I went round last night he’d managed to install google chrome ‘it said it would speed up my web browsing, what is it?’ 😕

Surprised to hear that zonalarm isn’t needed – do people not bother with firewalls anymore?

Any mainstream router of the likes that BT give out comes with a built in firewall that blocks anything coming in, which makes zone alarm redundant for the majority of users.