Free Lightweight Anti Virus

[Nikos751]

Windows Defender is not always that light. Try to launch an disk usage intensive program (at launch) like a game, and you 'll see that there is a long delay compared to when some other AV's are used in real time. I did the test in my Windows 10 laptop, with Smite game, using both Fsecure and Avira free antivirus programs.
I think this is not a case-only incident as many users complain about large filelist icons taking a lot of time to load.

 

[ifacedown]

Windows Defender is not always that light. Try to launch an disk usage intensive program (at launch) like a game, and you 'll see that there is a long delay compared to when some other AV's are used in real time. I did the test in my Windows 10 laptop, with Smite game, using both Fsecure and Avira free antivirus programs.
I think this is not a case-only incident as many users complain about large filelist icons taking a lot of time to load.

Yes. That's why I prefer ESET (though not free) over Windows Defender. Opening a folder full of different files esp. executables causes too much delays. For a free alternative, Panda Free 2016 is a good choice.

 

[Antivirus Tester]

avast is too heavy in my opinion @Dani Santos @Kardo Kristal can he use xvirus or crystal security along with windows defender?

 

[Mr. Tech]

avast is too heavy in my opinion @Dani Santos @Kardo Kristal can he use xvirus or crystal security along with windows defender?

He can indeed use it alongside Windows Defender, I personally prefer Crystal Security over Xvirus though.

 

[Kardo Kristal]

can he use xvirus or crystal security along with windows defender?

Hi,

Yes. Crystal Security works well with Windows Defender.

Regards,
Kardo

 

[Nikos751]

Yes. That's why I prefer ESET (though not free) over Windows Defender. Opening a folder full of different files esp. executables causes too much delays. For a free alternative, Panda Free 2016 is a good choice.

Actually, I cannot choose between Avira free and Panda free. I want minimal disk usage and no slowdowns because of a bad internet connection for example or heavy io.
Less disk usage: Panda free.
More stability: Avira free.
So; I dont think there are other free option coming close to these.

 

[Malware Man]

Windows Defender is quite light and works wonderfully (besides the slow scanning of files when you first open up the file explorer). I'm just using all built in Windows security features (Applocker, Windows Defender + Firewall, UAC on max) combined with HitmanPro.Alert and Malwarebytes free. I have no issues at all with malware. I've tried to purposely infect myself so many times and I fail every time.

Avira is quite light but I had to stop using it cause it always caused my audio to start cracking and hissing and skip while playing music through headphones. I have no idea why. The problem is solved as soon as I removed it.

Avast is just full of ads and used to be my go to but now it's just full of ads constantly popping up on you and you could disable it using game mode but I like to know what is going on.

AVG is just bad. The detection rates are pretty low but are probably higher than Windows Defender. I haven't used it in ages. Prob since the 2011 version. So I could give it a go again once the new 2016 version is out.

Panda free is nice but it is cloud based and I couldn't get the URL filter to work with Edge and you need to install the Yahoo toolbar to get it to work.

360 TSE I've had such issues like false positives and random system slowdown and the UI just being really slow for me and the detection rate was pretty bad on some files and it had a detection ratio of like 40 on virus total. It was pretty sad to see many times.

So ya. I've had almost every free AV and Windows Defender is built in and just works without any hassles and updates all on it's own with Windows update.

 

[hjlbx]

Windows Defender is not always that light. Try to launch an disk usage intensive program (at launch) like a game, and you 'll see that there is a long delay compared to when some other AV's are used in real time. I did the test in my Windows 10 laptop, with Smite game, using both Fsecure and Avira free antivirus programs.
I think this is not a case-only incident as many users complain about large filelist icons taking a lot of time to load.

Avira Free is a much better choice than Windows Defender in my experience. WD can be problematic sometimes; scans are a drag on system resources, detection and clean-up can cause quirky system behavior... just not all that refined of a product. Avira Free always works more seamlessly for me. Just perform a full system scan and then keep real-time protection enabled and it is light as a feather.

Scheduled, full-system scans are heavy just like every other full system scan from Avast to Zemana.

 

[jamescv7]

WD issue goes always to Disk Activity even in idle times which consistent especially previous version but overall good protection with no FP so far on their consistency.

However Avast Free is fair enough on all performance and stability category.

 

[Kuttz]

If you wanted a light weight but effective security you can try:

Avira Free + Crystal Security (second opinion cloud detection. customized) + Windows Firewall works pretty good.
You can also add malwarebytes anti-exploit free to spice up security with no performance impact.