AVG Free hogs more and more system resources with every upgrade.

Anyone using MS Security Essentials on their machine?

Thx, JR

 http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

I haven't heard of that. I will try it. I use avast to my main editing pc as well.

Never had any problems.

Let us know how it goes.  I tried avast but didn't care for the interface and how it functioned.

Install it and removed avast at laptop.

It found a trojan and delete it.

At my main PC I will stay with avast for the moment.

Laptop is better for tests. Dekstop is a holly ground.

MSE is small, fast, light, effective, and free!

I have it on a few machines and it takes up very little resources. On machines that go online it's also a good idea to run this full scan once in a while:

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

JohnnyReboot:

AVG Free hogs more and more system resources with every upgrade.

Really? I've been using AVG since 7.x and I'm now happily running 9.0.698. All Task Manager processes for the AVG components total less than 12MB for me. There are memory spikes when accessing EXE files upon first access/execution, but the memory is very quickly released back to that 12MB zone once the program has been deemed 'safe' by AVG.

The only thing that bothers me is that it can't update automatically without scaning after.

I don't want a scan every day or every so. So you have to manually update every day.

Or you have to set microsoft updates on which I don't want also.

malefunktion:

Really? I've been using AVG since 7.x and I'm now happily running 9.0.698. All Task Manager processes for the AVG components total less than 12MB for me. There are memory spikes when accessing EXE files upon first access/execution, but the memory is very quickly released back to that 12MB zone once the program has been deemed 'safe' by AVG.

I'm not updated to AVG free 9 yet but I also do not see any memory issues with AVG free.

AVG's shield is very good. In my experience better then NOD32, Norton (certified by avid) and Kapersky. As the shield is what I need the most, cause of the use of dongles for pictures, music etc... I have no need to change.

I've been using this for about the last six months and I would highly recommend it. The download is extremely small and the memory footprint is usually less than 3MB. The interface is clean and simple, updates are automatic and completely silent. This program seems to run on the "no news is good news" principle. Previously I used NOD32 and Outpost, I like MSE the best. I don't know how the heuristics and accuracy stack up against other A/Vs out there, but so far I have not been disappointed. My main complaint is the lack of control with detections. In my experience suspect files are usually deleted automatically which can be problematic, the behavior can be mostly controlled through the preferences though. Overall I would say it's definitely a solid contender, McAfee and Symantec have good reason to worry.

jveekeres:

malefunktion:

Really? I've been using AVG since 7.x and I'm now happily running 9.0.698. All Task Manager processes for the AVG components total less than 12MB for me. There are memory spikes when accessing EXE files upon first access/execution, but the memory is very quickly released back to that 12MB zone once the program has been deemed 'safe' by AVG.

 I'm not updated to AVG free 9 yet but I also do not see any memory issues with AVG free.

AVG's shield is very good. In my experience better then NOD32, Norton (certified by avid) and Kapersky. As the shield is what I need the most, cause of the use of dongles for pictures, music etc... I have no need to change.

  

Boys, have you tried to do any downloads, for example the latest Boris 6,051 patch or the latest Nvidia 191,07 patch, I am getting install error on both of them after my upgrade from AVG 8,5 to 9,0, this tested on three systems.

Downloading the same files using AVG 8,5 works well as it always has, so does a test made with the latest trial of kaspersky.

I agree with Johnny.  It seems AVG is going the way of Norton.  Each new version seems to do a little more than the last one and take up more resources.  I am going to try Microsoft OneCare next to see if it works better.

Norton has always been a no go for any NLE I worked with.

I don't like it at all. I used Avast without a problem and I am going Essentials as it seems.

From my experience with AVG Free from v6.x or thereabouts I have noticed with every upgrade that there were more and more processes running in task manager with each upgrade.  AVG Free 9.x had the most from what I saw.  Each upgrade was a larger install too unless I'm mistaken.  I was happy with AVG Free when I first installed it way back when.

Removing AVG Free from my computer was no easy task either.  Add/Remove Programs couldn't get rid of everything and I went into the registry and removed anything that started with AVG/Grisoft.  Also searched my computer for anything AVG/Grisoft and deleted it.  Some items are very stuborn and refused to be place in the trash/deleted at first.

Even after all of this I still have AVG Free Email Scanner and AVG Free WatchDog showing in my list of Services.  I disabled those.  Windows Security Center still thinks I have virus protection on my computer. ???  I downloaded something called avgremover but haven't used it as it requires installing something else it seems.

Currently I'm not running any anti virus software and am going with a hardware router, Windows Firewall, and some other Windows Internet settings.  I figure as long as I don't get stupid opening unrecognized emails or visiting suspect internet sites I'll be okay for now.  

Now, I'm not recommending this approach for anybody but my computer hasn't felt this fast in long time.  My Task Mgr shows a mere 16 processes running (down from about 22-25 with AVG Free installed) and Avid seems to be very happy.  I guess there's something to be said about getting rid of all the "tenticles" entwined in a system.  You're mileage may vary.

I'll probably go with Microsoft Security Essentials eventually.  Hopefully there won't be any conflicts with AVG remnants that may be hanging on when I try to install it.

Regards, JR      

JohnnyReboot:

AVG Free 9.x had the most from what I saw.  Each upgrade was a larger install too unless I'm mistaken

That's certainly true. There are more processes with V9, but as I mentioned, I never saw excessive memory use or over-the-top CPU utilisation with any of them.

The installer package is marginally larger (73MB vs 65MB), but that's to be expected if their underlying code has to cope with newer threats that V8.5 couldn't.

JohnnyReboot:

Removing AVG Free from my computer was no easy task either.  Add/Remove Programs couldn't get rid of everything and I went into the registry and removed anything that started with AVG/Grisoft.  Also searched my computer for anything AVG/Grisoft and deleted it.  Some items are very stuborn and refused to be place in the trash/deleted at first.

Even after all of this I still have AVG Free Email Scanner and AVG Free WatchDog showing in my list of Services.  I disabled those.  Windows Security Center still thinks I have virus protection on my computer. ???  I downloaded something called avgremover but haven't used it as it requires installing something else it seems.

I don't have any problems removing V9. AVG does install some services at a deeply system-based level, meaning they can't be terminated by mere user intervention alone.

As for files and services remaining after an uninstall, I'm wondering whether you did an install of V9 over your previous version, or whether you did a clean install with any previous version removed?

I usually don't recommend that people manually go fiddling with the registry. Tools like CCleaner, Abexo Registry Cleaner and Tweaknow RegCleaner are excellent for spotting bits'n'pieces that might be left behind.

JohnnyReboot:

Now, I'm not recommending this approach for anybody but my computer hasn't felt this fast in long time.  My Task Mgr shows a mere 16 processes running (down from about 22-25 with AVG Free installed) and Avid seems to be very happy.  I guess there's something to be said about getting rid of all the "tenticles" entwined in a system.  You're mileage may vary.

Yeah, it is good if Windows is running as few processes as possible, but it's not the be all and end all. A well maintained, clean system can run extremely well regardless of the processes.

I'm running 40 processes and most of them are related to keyboard/mouse drivers, AVG, Zonealarm, RAID management drivers, MySQL server (for my web development), IIS (for serving my web development) etc...

Despite having stuff that others may consider "bloat" lurking around, they are all tools and services I need regularly, and my system is as spritely as it has ever been.

I hope you have some luck with MS Essentials (but I'm not convinced Microsoft is who I'd turn to for protection against nasties). Give CCLeaner a go for tracking down leftover AVG stuff.

malefunktion:

I hope you have some luck with MS Essentials (but I'm not convinced Microsoft is who I'd turn to for protection against nasties).