Battle "Lightest-weight" free real time AV? (Top contenders: Avira, Bitdefender, or pay for Webroot?)

[anoukq]

I have a fairly old, slow computer (albeit souped up a bit with a 1 TB Barracuda SSHD): a Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241, 8GB RAM, i5-5500u, and am running Windows 10 Home x64, everything current/updated. I use Chrome and/or Vivaldi as my browser, if that makes a difference.

I've been using Avast free for about a year and while I like the interface, I keep getting handle leaks and other problems that are really slowing me down, especially on the internet (and I've repeatedly totally uninstalled and reinstalled). It might be some incompatibility with something on my system, although I've seen in a lot of the most recent AV rankings that Avast is no longer considered lightweight compared to Avira, etc. In any event, I'm fed up with troubleshooting and just want to ditch it.

My main priority is, of course, good real-time protection, but also something as lightweight as possible (especially when on the internet). I'm also totally broke (unemployed) and not looking for much beyond standard web and file protection, preferably with heuristic/behavioral analysis--Windows firewall is fine, I use web mail so don't need spam filtering, etc.

But again, the main thing is that it be as light on resources as possible. Top contenders:

• Avira (I know the pop-ups are pretty irritating, but if it is significantly lighter, I can definitely deal); a little concerned because I thought I read somewhere that it doesn't have any sort of behavior shield/heuristics;
• Bitdefender, although what I've read really varies in terms of reports on how system-intensive it is;
• Others I've seen with varying reports of being lightweight and/or effective: Norton (remember years ago when it was really, really slow); F-Secure; Zone Alarm... or open to other suggestions!
• Or is Webroot an option I should consider? Is it actually secure? The concept sounds great, and it would definitely not slow my system down (right?).

Sorry, I've just spent several hours reading everything I could find about different programs, scraping/compiling to try to find the "perfect program," and there is so much contradictory info (other than that Avira is lightweight) that I thought I'd go to some unbiased experts .

Thanks much.

 

[roger_m]

I find Panda to be one of the lightest antiviruses there is. It does not always do so well in performance testing, but my exepereience with it, is that it is very light.

 

[kamla5abi]

Bitdefender free works pretty good.
voodoo shield is another program to look at and understand how it works, to complement free AV.

other question about your computer:
1) when was the last time you did a format/clean install?
2) what apps do you have on your computer that u use?
3) what apps are in 'startup' in task manager? or are running in background and taking resources? (screenshot task manager details tab - but make sure u do below action first so everyone can see how much ram those processes actually use and how much max they have used after u have used computer for a few days or so, so dont shutdown computer just put to sleep, then it retains the max memory used number and will show max usage)
4) in task manager, go to details tab, right click any column heading > select columns > add: working set, peak working set, private working set,
- use those 3 new columns open, and use ur laptop as u normally would for a few days. See how much of your RAM gets used by each process and which they are.

doing those things will tell u more about ur installation and how much resources it uses (for each AV program too).

don't waste time with avira free. definition detection is good, but behavior detection is effectively non-existent.
and its scanning portion takes too much time/resources, and it will always scan entire system when it finds any malware file.
I used Bitdefender free lots before buying it, and it was light on my laptop (similar to urs, except i used it with regular harddrive + separate caching ssd, pretty similar to ur hybrid harddrive i guess).

also, in this forum MW Hub that section where ppl provide malware samples, then ppl test them using different AV and share results, go thru that and read that.
Gives u good idea how some AV are good at behavior detection and others arent that good. Most AV are similar when it comes to definition detection (unless its a not very good AV that gets definition update slow or not good detection)
lots of times they show screenshot of processes, usually u can see how much RAM each AV software processes are using in that too (gives u an idea how much RAM it will use, especially when dealing with malware).

 

[WinXPert]

Anything but Zone Alarm

 

[lab34]

Hello anoukq,
my machine is similar to an old core i3 (xeon 5450) with 4GB.
Last year I've tried Panda Cloud, it was running well.
Avira was running light too, except when it scans after finding a malware. And its behavior blocker is not so good.
Than I've tried 360TS and BD Free, and they are running smoothly too.

 

[Parsh]

@anoukq Your h/w configuration looks good.
I'll say that posts #5, #10 and #11 will clear a lot of stuff for you.

• If you use BD free (excellent), you can complement it with Binisoft Windows Firewall Control or TinyWall to control Windows Firewall better (default protection mode ain't good).
• If you use Windows Defender, complement with VooDooShield (you can use this with any light AV, for AI recommendations, multi-engine results and blocking of files) and use one of the above firewall apps
• If you use Avast free, configure it well like said in post #4, complement it with one of the above firewall apps
• If you use 360 TotalSecurity (do NOT go for 360 TotalSecurityEssentials), enable all engines (won't be an issue, the scanning is optimized for that). Again, complement it with one of the above firewall apps

Panda free is light but it has got issues like delays/getting jammed when scanning archives etc. It has also got issues with zero days.
You can always check the MT Giveaways section for numerous giveaways posted by Mods and other members.
If you would like to install Avast Internet Security for free, pm me. I've something that might work for you

 

[Quassar]

Combination of Zemana with Shadow Defender and SpyShelters
do a lot more than your casual stand alone AV and still is a lot more light

 

[ahity]

i think the best choise is try take trial version and choose one you like.. then combine with another AV.. im not expert on combine AV but im try all trial AV

 

[Rengar]

You can combine Panda free av with with Immunet

 

[Kuttz]

Panda Free + VoodooShield works. But if you prefer strong web protection BitDefender Free + Windows FW + UAC works really good.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Since you are on Win10 , i won't even consider any AV other than Windows Defender, at least it won't break my system. I rather add an anti-exe or sandbox on top. Lightness is useless if it hamper the OS.

 

[CMLew]

Since you are on Windows 10 , i won't even consider any AV other than Windows Defender, at least it won't break my system. I rather add an anti-exe or sandbox on top. Lightness is useless if it hamper the OS.

WD + NVT ERP (lockdown) + WFC

Not even a single nanoparticle can come in/out alive.

 

[RoboMan]

VoodooShield + Windows Defender

 

[brod56]

Of those, Bitdefender Free with no hesitation. Strong behaviour blocker, minimal impact on performance.
If you want the best of the best, I would go with WD+default deny solution. Definitely a bit more heavy than just an AV, but not noticeable that much on everyday use (and I own an old PC).

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

VoodooShield + Windows Defender

+100

 

[generalwu]

Can anyone tell me why is Avira Free bad? I only know that they've a irritating persistent ad pop-up.

Thanks.

 

[roger_m]

Can anyone tell me why is Avira Free bad? I only know that they've a irritating persistent ad pop-up.

I've found it to be very heavy at times, because it sometimes runs multiple scans at once. I have on idea why it does that.

 

[kamla5abi]

Can anyone tell me why is Avira Free bad? I only know that they've a irritating persistent ad pop-up.

Thanks.

as @roger_m said, annoying scan of entire computer when malware is found by avira
avira behavior detection not that great
avira cloud doesn't upload all suspicious/new files to check, theres some "criteria" it needs to meet but i couldn't find info on what that "criteria" is... (i've read this somewhere, and someone posted here too, but can't remember where i read this...)
go into malware hub testing and see posts where avira was tested
case closed
obviously theres some good points (definition/signature detection is good) but i think these days behavior detection and ransomware protection is more important to me.

i just read about shadow defender little bit, that program seems pretty strong if it actually works like its supposed to work and doesn't get bypassed easily
have to read more about it first, but for some computers i can see shadow defender working very well
ex, computers where the users are "elderly" or "noobs" who only do email/browsing/youtube/videochat/etc type stuff and no gaming/installing new software once the usual software is setup & installed etc. For those types of computers/users, having computer files reset on every startup is fine and will cause no problems, since the software used is already installed and protected from being altered etc

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Can anyone tell me why is Avira Free bad? I only know that they've a irritating persistent ad pop-up.

Thanks.

I tested avira free and avira pro. The pro was tested first and only 1 backdoor was bypassed. The cloud uploading in pro worked more frequently and it caught a lot of malwares
6 hours later, I tested avira free with the same malware packs. Avira was heavily infected multiple times by ransomwares and malwares. It slowed down my VM during the test. The cloud in the free version just uploaded 2 files and didn't upload the rest. Too bad
I also tested avira free in another test with different malwares packs. Again, infected by some ransomwares

avast free was also tested with the same malware packs by @Lord Ami but it blocked them all. Avast free makes me feel much more confident while using computer rather than hoping avira cloud to work all the time. Moreover, in offline condition, avira cloud won't work certainly, just signatures, not good enough

 

[Nuno]

I agree with the W Defender + VoodooShield approach.
Safe and ightweight.
You can probably add a second opinion scanner to check once in a while if everything is okay.

 

[generalwu]

Thank you guys for your explanation.

Makes me feel better for changing to Avast awhile ago.

They used to be light back in the days but not sure what happened to them.

I've used them in the past and even recommended them to my friends and relative.

Hope they can be great again.