Low footprint virus software anywhere?

[artao]

Ahoy mates!!

As modern games are VERY processor/memory intensive, AND being an artist I work on CG rather regularly, I need anti-viral software with a very low cpu/memory footprint, and/or able to COMPLETELY shut it down easily such that it leaves nothing in memory. I want intensive apps to have full access to all of my computer's capabilities.
Been offline for awhile, and used to use AVG and liked it, but the new version eats over 300megs while running(I've only got a gig, so with xp+avg, over half my memory was unavailble without HEAVY swapfile use), and is nigh impossible to completely shut down, so I've uninstalled it. Now looking for something that actually fits my needs.
Any recommendations? :hmmm:

[Castout]

As a whole package I would recommend COMODO Internet Security(CIS) get it here http://forums.comodo.com/

And if you still not convinced with the AV of it then install Avira AV too to go with it.

CIS is really light on the PC:yeah:. And it's GREAT!
Avira is too a great Anti virus and is not heavy on the system as well.

If you have to pick only one then I'd recommend CIS over Avira for sure

[JSLTIGER]

avast! uses under 100MB...I've been running it for over three years now with no problems.

[goldorak]

Avira Antivir, free version.

[Skybird]

since years I recommend Avira AntiVir, free version.

Just their update server for the free version since several months now has traffic problems. If it's free, you can't demand much service, can you.

[Task Force]

yep Avaira is a good one.:up: free version is what im useing as my 2nd AV now.:yep:

[CaptainHaplo]

I second the Avast nod.

[artao]

Thanks all, one question tho:
can any/all of these be COMPLETELY shut down such that NOTHING is left memory-resident? Used to use Avast! too, so that's most tempting so far, tho Comodo looks good to me as well. But my complete shut-down requirement/desire is very important to me.
Guess I should up my RAM to 2G ... :o

[Reece]

COMODO Firewall with AVIRA Antivirus software!!:up:

[CaptainHaplo]

artoa - any app can be totally unloaded from memory. Easiest way is just identify what threads are loaded, then write a batch file to kill the services and threads at will, along with another batch file to restart them all as needed.

If you want to kill it for a game, double click your batch file, wait 5 seconds till the command window disappears, then start your game knowing you have maximized the resources. When your done, another double click on the restart batch, and your once again protected.

[artao]

Interesting idea re: batch file .... don't know what commands I would use tho. Also, many AV products protect their processes; for example, running AVG, I used a utility I've got (DTask Manager) to send Kill signals to a process tree, but AVG just auto-restarted them on me. I have found a few more utilities that may be of use in this matter, but have not yet tested them.
The search goes on.

:hmmm:

[conus00]

I have been running Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0.0.506 for some time now without any problems.

[CaptainHaplo]

If your using windows XP - the command for process killing is:

taskkill

I suggest you also use the /F arguement to force kill the process. DO NOT use this on services however. For services, use the commands

net stop

net start

to first stop, then later start, services. This allows the service to terminate gracefully. A quick google search on these will provide you with enough info to build your batch file.

Just make sure with the services, you set them to manual instead of automatic. This is one of a few ways programs like AV restart the threads they use.

[Castout]

COMODO Firewall with AVIRA Antivirus software!!:up:

May I correct that a bit COMODO Internet security with Avira Anti Virus. COMODO anti virus will be the one to first detect anything if set to on access. Anything that leaks through will still be protected through Avira. COMODO anti virus is not bad it has been vastly improved over a few versions now. The thought of abandoning Avira came to my mind now.

Mind you if you decide to use CIS you must by all means turn off the windows firewall.:salute:

[kiwi_2005]

Windows firewall and Windows defender if you want to go as cheap as possible and they're okay have them running on 2nd pc for over 2 years now with no problems - just as long as windows is always updated. Main pc runs Nortons 360.

Also MS free security suite (beta) when final it will be free to genuine windows users that will detect viruses, spyware and malware. Im sure its still in beta if so just a warning it ran terrible when i last tried it - to much checking in the background made my browsing/and just normal tasks a chore.

Once its in a good enough stage thou I'll probably switch over to the MS suite.
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

[Reece]

I wonder what the Win 7 firewall is like, will we need a 3rd party version anymore?:hmmm:

[artao]

Holy CRAP!! found an awesome app called CleanMem -- http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem -- that runs a sheduled task every x minutes (30 by default, which is fine for me so far) to ask windows to ... well ... clean-up memory use, as it were. Doesn't make stuff swap to virtual memory either, and it causes very noticeable RAM-use reduction/optimization. VERY lightweight, I have yet to notice it running, except to see that my RAM use drops to around 180megs with nothing running (used to sit around 240meg). GREAT app.
G'wan install Avast! and see how that goes.
Thanks all for your advice and help.

:yeah::salute:

[edit] -- as far as i'm concerned, screw windows firewall etc... bloated and virus-targeted

[Arclight]

I'd be carefull with those memory management apps. Ussually they do in deed reduce memory usage, but slow down operations by chucking out data that needs to be reloaded at some point. :-?