Best lightweight AV for WinXP?

gaming_guy

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xenonive

If you are not on the net that much , would just download windows xp service pack 3 offline on another machine which has faster connection about 400mb download would take very long time and not practical on 56k , this will then patch the machine with alot of updates and maybe instead performance. Would suggest an AV if you are transfering alot of files on and off the computer to other machines but if just for typing up some letters etc and printing wouldn't worry to much about being infected.

weegie.geek

If you don't access the net often, it'll be a pain to keep it updated, but try to update it as regularly as possible. Not just your AV but windows in general. That'll be painful on dialup.

spg_SCOTT

Being careful here...

I personally feel it is down to the user's own experience with what ever AV they use...so when people ask which is best I can't answer that. What I can say is that I have use avast! free for a while now and I have found it to be good enough for me. I have also found their forum to be very helpful, when you need it...

There are others, from the ones I can remember: Avira, Avg, (funny how they all start with A? Talk about good memory... ) but not having used them I can't comment on them...

So for me it is more what you feel comfortable with, rather than the typical tests and what have you...

gaming_guy

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xenonive

+1 for avast after using McAfee , Norton and AVG but depends what people feel happy with using as no one anti virus protects 100% from everything that could infect you.

xenonive

if you are a student or have kids then microsoft can provide them with windows 2008 server license to use at home via registered college/uni/school just look at Microsoft DreamSpark if helps you

The_Grandmaster

Presently using avira (+ malwarebytes) and think it's good (suggested by alienRIK).

Paid norton is OK but very heavy on the system. Others would be Avast but personally never have used it. AVG is now useless.

The answer to: do I need AV if you don't connect to the internet - is yes: if you have an infected USB etc. which gets plugged into your computer...

tronator

For all of you who need the updates offline, try this out

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Signatures-Updates/ct-Offline-Update.shtml

You can download updates by product (OS/Office), version and language. There is even a linux script for doing it. Then you can either leave everything on a network share and run the updater from the client or burn a CD/DVD with all the updates including the updater. It will even reboot and continue unattended if necessary.

gaming_guy

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tronator

gaming_guy wrote: »

I did use something very very similar to that called wsusoffline...

It's actually the same software