Antivirus with minimal system load. Light antivirus software for old and weak computers. The lightest antiviruses: the main aspects of testing

Searching for a lightweight antivirus for Windows 7 and older versions of this OS is considered a fairly popular topic today, because not every user has a powerful PC that can "cope" with capacious applications. Any gadget and device needs an antivirus, because without it, the risk of malware infection of the device significantly increases. Various companies offer fast, lightweight, yet extremely reliable antivirus solutions ideal for budget computers.

As mentioned earlier, not all people have the opportunity to buy a PC with the latest configuration, a powerful processor, a solid amount of RAM, the latest video card, and so on. Therefore, many people opt for light antiviruses for computers with medium and low configurations.

To finally determine whether this or that security program is suitable for a weak computer, it is necessary to analyze a number of aspects by type:

• simultaneous work with demanding utilities;
• downloading information from the Internet;
• threats from dubious resources;
• speed of copying or transferring information to HDD;
• background functioning.

Best lightweight antivirus programs for Windows 7

Many users have already been able to understand that on weak PCs, powerful antiviruses eat up almost all system resources, which makes the computer slow down. Some companies took care of the owners of budget devices and offered light antiviruses for weak computers, thanks to which data protection is guaranteed without brakes and system overloads.

Comodo Internet Security

It is a well-proven free antivirus designed for budget PCs and consumes a minimum of RAM and other resources. It is capable of providing protection from both file and Internet threats. This program includes an antivirus with a firewall and a behavioral blocking system, so the virus will not penetrate into the user's PC in any way.

The following advantages of this utility can be highlighted:

• one service capable of controlling all devices;
• full protection from spyware applications, Internet attacks;
• blocking questionable resources and downloads;
• assistance in finding devices that have been stolen or lost;
• the ability to work on a PC with minimal requirements.

The advantages described above distinguish this program from all others.

Trend Micro Internet Security 2016

The main feature of Trend Micro Internet Security 2016 is its highly specific design. Antivirus interface, transitions between windows are considered animated. It is possible to choose one of the proposed design themes or even install absolutely any picture as the background of the program.

The antivirus runs fairly smoothly on weak computers and includes a number of the following features:

• online scanning. This is a file antivirus that monitors the file system around the clock;
• web filtering. A special web screen opens, designed to filter HTTP traffic. Despite the fact that the above program automatically installs its extensions, even without them, web protection works fine;
• checking the health of the computer. The utility checks for the latest updates for Windows, analyzes account and firewall settings, allows you to edit the list of software downloaded automatically, finds "garbage" in the PC and clears the history;
• privacy scan. In this case, the account of social systems is configured to make personal data available exclusively for friends.

G Data Internet Security

This antivirus uses a special Bitdefender engine along with the new CloseGap system with a cloud component in order to guarantee immediate and permanent virus protection, spam protection, network threats and so on. Regional threats are also taken into account, the firewall runs in the background and does not bother the computer in any way, even when playing games. The presence of parental control allows you to protect the younger generation from sites with questionable content.

Among the main advantages of the antivirus are the following:

• high level of detection of infected files;
• protection against theft of personal information in the form of passwords, e-mail and so on;
• the possibility of free web surfing, internet banking and online shopping;
• ease of installation and use;
• fast enough start;
• deleting confidential information with one click.

F-Secure Internet Security

It is a complex software that includes protection against threats on the Internet. The program runs on the Bitdefender engine, uses cloud technologies, proactive protection, anti-phishing, there is the possibility of parental control and safe work with Internet banking.

The antivirus itself:

• protects against infections and spyware. E-mail is scanned regularly;
• there is Firewall, advanced network protection, application analysis, intrusion prevention and control of network connections.

Protection on the Internet is also offered:

• allows you to set the restriction of access to dubious sites for children;
• thanks to protection when surfing the network, pages with questionable content are blocked and security information is displayed;
• banking operations are protected, which protects customers from malicious actions when using online banking and making transfers.

Total Security

This is a free antivirus program, which in its functionality is not worse than many paid programs, and even outperforms them in certain parameters. The program includes free antivirus, PC acceleration, system cleaning, device scan and a number of other additional features.

The anti-virus offers several test modes (we are talking about fast, full and selective):

• a quick scan allows you to check the system settings, running programs, startup software and basic system information in just a couple of minutes;
• full scan differs only in that it also includes files stored on the PC. Therefore, the analysis completion time can be different - it all depends on how many files are stored on the user's HDD;
• custom scan implies the ability to select files, folders or drives that are scanned for malicious elements.

Also, using this program, you can significantly speed up your computer by optimizing startup, scheduled tasks, service utilities, critical system services and network connection. All this is done automatically.

The computer cleaning function involves searching for temporarily stored files that are created during Internet surfing. It also removes all the garbage that appears while watching the video and other unnecessary information.

A few more reasons to choose Qihoo for downloading antivirus on a weak PC

There are a number of main reasons why you should choose Qihoo for downloading a security application on a weak PC:

• the ability to simultaneously operate several engines at once (one of them is Bitdefender);
• the presence of additional functionality, with the help of which the program makes the work of a weak PC faster;
• special plugins built into the browser and monitoring questionable sites, as well as other signs of threats;
• work in the background, so that the user is not distracted from performing key tasks due to the constant pop-up of windows.

Important! It should be emphasized that it is recommended to download everything for weak computers exclusively on official resources. Only in this case will it be guaranteed that you will receive a full-fledged antivirus without code changes that can harm personal information and Windows 7 itself.

Antivirus installation instructions

Consider the detailed instructions for installing an antivirus using the example of the latter, 360 Total Security from Qihoo. The installation of other antivirus utilities is similar, the only difference can be in the installer menu, with which you can easily and quickly install any antivirus.

Important! If the device already has an antivirus, it should be removed before installing a new one.

1. Go to the official website of the utility developer at the link: https://www.360totalsecurity.com/ru/.

   

2. Left-click on the Free Download button.

   

3. Run the downloaded installation file from your browser's Downloads folder.

   

4. Check the box on the acceptance of the license agreement, additional items as needed, click "Install".

   

5. Wait for the installation process to complete. After finishing the installation of the program, offer to use the download of additional software, click "Start" or close the window by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner.

   

   

6. After installation, the antivirus will open automatically. Select the function you need from the list and click on it. We recommend that you perform a full check of the device by clicking on the large "Check" button.

   

Video - How to Install 360 Total Security Antivirus

All of the above antiviruses are free!

Thus, in order to start using the above-described antiviruses, it will be enough to download them to your computer and install them. After installation, you need an Internet connection to update the anti-virus databases - thanks to this, the protection will always be relevant. At the same time, for weak PCs, they use a minimum of the system's potential and often miss viruses that are very difficult to detect.

Video - Top Antivirus. Choosing the best

The stress testing included 7 test stages over 14 months for each antivirus solution. 19,000 individual results were used for each product, and the results of 35 test events were pooled. In the current endurance test from January 2014 to the end of February 2015, a total of 23 antiviruses were tested in AV-TEST labs for performance. This test alternated between Windows XP, 7 and 8.1 operating systems.

Infographics

23 antiviruses in performance test

The testing included anti-virus programs Ahnlab, Avast, AVG (free and paid versions), Avira, Bitdefender, BullGuard, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microworld, Norman, Norton, Panda, Qihoo 360, Quick Heal, Tencent, Threat Track and Trend Micro. Additionally, a Windows system with the free antivirus Microsoft Security Essentials or Windows Defender (for Windows 8 / 8.1) was run through all tests to obtain a comparative result. A base system without antivirus protection was used to compare performance results later. More detailed information about the basic system is available in the section "".

For all products in the tests, the time required to run test suites (for how long) was measured, which included the following activities on the user's computer:

• downloading files from the Internet;
• launching websites;
• installing applications;
• launching applications with documents;
• copying files.

For all subsections, load scores were calculated from 1 to 5 after each test, where 1 is good and 5 is bad. If the antivirus slowed down the system from 0 to 20 percent, it received 1 load point. 21 to 40 percent - 2 points, 41 to 60 percent drop in productivity - 3 points, and so on up to 5.

Thus, for 5 test sections, the ideal result was obtained when 5 points of load were obtained, and the worst result was obtained when 25 points were reached. All intermediate results were combined, and in the end, the average was calculated for 7 test stages.

Load test results

: Some antivirus programs will be a heavy burden when performing daily tasks on Windows

The minimum impact on system performance, and, consequently, the best performance results were shown by the anti-virus solution from Kaspersky Lab (Kaspersky), gaining 5.1 load points. As previously noted, the ideal score is 5.0 points. Security products from Bitdefender and Qihoo 360 are next, with 5.3 and 5.7 points respectively.

6 antivirus solutions - McAfee, Bullguard, Trend Micro, Norton, Avira and F-Secure also performed well in stress testing, scoring 6.1 to 7.9 stress points. All other 14 products were above this threshold. At the same time, the Windows system, protected by the built-in antivirus Microsoft Security Essentials or Microsoft Defender, scored 8.7 points.

Antivirus solutions from Norman, Quick Heal and Threat Track are already significantly slowing down the system - 12, 12.4 and 13.9 load points. None of the antiviruses showed the worst score of 25 points.

File Copy Category in Windows: While antivirus from Kaspersky practically does not slow down the system, Threat Track and Quick Heal have a noticeable effect

To better understand the bottom line, here's an example of two opposite results. Anyone gets impatient, especially when copying files in Windows. In this test, a base system without anti-virus protection takes 141 seconds to copy the AV-TEST test set containing 3.3 GB. A Windows system with Kaspersky antivirus installed scans files and takes 165 seconds to copy. The worst-performing antivirus, Threat Track, takes an average of 300 seconds for the same procedure.

5 categories in performance testing: Most antiviruses slowed down PCs in the "copy files" category

Test configuration

For the test in the laboratory, we used several computers with absolutely identical hardware characteristics: Intel Xeon X3360 @ 2.83GHz, 4 GB RAM and a 500 GB hard disk. Since these computers may have slightly different performance, they were selected from 60 test computers in the AV-TEST laboratory. All computers have been tested several times with unprotected Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. PCs with identical performance were selected for stress testing. The obtained performance indicators were used as a benchmark for the test. Before and after testing each antivirus, each system was tested to ensure that they were still showing their initial indicative results.

Each antivirus product was tested several times. After that, the original state of the system was restored using a system image, including installed applications. Then the test is repeated again, the system is rebooted, and the series of tests performed is repeated. The computer is rebooted and tested several times, then the system is reimaged and the procedure starts over. After all, there are a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 40 separate results for each individual test. For 90 test steps, from 1,800 to 3,600 individual results are recorded for each anti-virus. In the stress test, which included 7 test stages, between 12,600 and 25,200 results were actually analyzed, with an average of 19,000 for each product. In testing 23 products, 430,000 test results were obtained.

Do antiviruses slow down your computer?

The subjective slowdown of computers that users often talk about is actually an objective fact. Products like Norman, Quickheal and Threat Track clearly demonstrate this. These security packages increase the copying time by 2.5 - 3 times, compared, for example, with an anti-virus solution from Kaspersky Lab.

The AV-TEST team is sometimes approached by users who get completely different results in their own tests. This can actually happen for certain configurations and with specific combinations of hardware and software. Those who are not sure if a fast antivirus program is right for them should try the following test: First, create a system backup, then download the test program and try it out. If something goes wrong, then you can simply revert to the original state using a backup.

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Have you faced a situation when you need to install an antivirus on an old computer that is weak by modern standards? It’s a pity to throw it out, because you can watch movies, listen to music, surf the Internet, but some popular antivirus of the latest version will gobble up all the remnants of performance, which is already in short supply.

Especially for such a case, I have prepared this article. Here are the lightest antiviruses in my opinion, both from the paid and free sectors. Programs are selected based solely on their load on the system, but sometimes the ease of antivirus comes at the expense of its reliability. There are such programs here too, but I left a note about reliability. The best antiviruses in terms of protection level will be collected in another separate article.

And so that you do not have to rely solely on the opinion of some left-handed dude from the Internet, for each antivirus I indicated its official system requirements. And so, let's go.

Light Free Antivirus 2016

Panda Free Antivirus 2016 (link to review). Free cloud antivirus with a minimum of protective components. Not very reliable, but it seems to be the easiest of the free programs.

System requirements: processor with a frequency of 300 MHz, 256 MB of RAM.

Qihoo 360 Total Security Essential 8 (link to review). Popular free antivirus from Chinese developers. Reliability at the level of the best paid products, except for the trouble with web protection and support for 64-bit systems.

When using only native cloud engines it is very lightweight. But even when one additional engine is connected, the load does not increase significantly. Personally, I have such an antivirus on an old computer with an Athlon XP 1.9 GHz processor and 1.2 GB of RAM, an additional Avira engine is connected. Using a computer is quite comfortable.

System requirements: 1.6 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM.

FortiClient 5.4 (link to review). An underestimated antivirus, free, including for the corporate sector. Not cloud-based, with a good level of signature detection, a full-fledged web screen and parental control system. Unfortunately, there is no proactive defense.

System requirements: Pentium-like processor, 256 MB RAM for Windows XP and 512 MB for Windows 7.

Lightweight Paid Antivirus 2016

Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 9 (). In my opinion, the lightest antivirus of all on this page. Consists of one file, consumes 3 MB of RAM when idle. Cloudy, ultralight, with proactive protection, including from keyloggers. But the level of reliability is extremely low, there is no web screen, the performance of some components has not been confirmed by tests.

System requirements: processor family Pentium, Celeron, AMD K6, Athlon, Duron; at least 128 MB of RAM, 2 GB is recommended for Windows 7.

Norton Security 2016 (link to review). One of my favorite paid antivirus software. It is focused on cloud technologies and has everything you need to fully protect your computer.

System requirements: Windows XP - 300 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM; Windows 7 - 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM (2 GB for x64); Windows 10 - 2GB RAM

Eset NOD32 Smart Security 9 (link to review). A comprehensive antivirus that I don't remember either for its lightness or reliability. However, his official system requirements are more than democratic, so you shouldn't forget about the "green man".

System requirements: Windows 7, 8, 10 - 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM; Windows XP SP 3 - 400 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM.

Attention! For full and high-quality work of cloud antiviruses, an active Internet connection is required.

But even if these antiviruses seemed heavy to you, there is only one way out - to install Puppy Linux).

Many who use antivirus software to protect their computer notice that the antivirus software slows down the system. Why is this happening? But because in order to protect your system from viruses, the antivirus constantly performs various checks - checks new files downloaded to your computer, checks the sites you visit, checks the system as a whole, etc. Each check wastes resources of your system and takes time, mainly because of this, the computer starts to slow down.

I personally worked with each of the popular antiviruses now and I know their pros and cons, but I decided to run several tests on a clean operating system to make sure which antivirus is still the fastest. Antiviruses took part in testing: Kaspersky Internet Security, Avast (free version), Dr. Web.

During testing, I tried to load the system with various games, "heavy" programs, downloaded files / torrets from the Internet, and visited infected sites. The results of the experiment were as follows:

1) Kaspersky Internet Security - in general, he did not load the system weakly. It's just that the running antivirus itself already eats up about 300 megabytes of RAM, so when playing games and using programs that are demanding on computer resources, the system constantly slowed down and hung. When downloading files, the system was also significantly loaded due to the fact that Kaspersky took a lot of resources to check the downloaded files.

2) Dr. Web - this antivirus as a whole did not have a significant effect on the system. True, in modern games there were still brakes and freezes. When working with the Internet - there were no lags, but there were other problems - Dr. Web considers very many sites suspicious and blocks access to them, even if I am 100% sure that the site is safe, then it will be possible to get to it only after disabling the antivirus. Same Dr. Web from time to time, it starts a full scan of the system for viruses by itself and during this scan the system noticeably slows down.

3) Avast (free version) - this antivirus as a whole did not have a significant effect on the system. Avast took up only about 80 megabytes of RAM. In games and when working with programs, brakes were not noticed in the system. When working with the Internet, there are also no problems.

The result of the experiment is as follows:
Avast turned out to be the fastest antivirus among these three. But it is entirely possible that this was because I was using the free version.

As I wrote above, antiviruses slow down the system because they check various files / sites, etc. for viruses. If the antivirus does not require resources at all, then it is quite possible to conclude that it will not thoroughly scan files for viruses. Do not forget that the antiviruses tested in this article are paid antiviruses, which are mainly designed to protect valuable information from various companies, etc. accordingly, these antiviruses must scan the system for viruses as carefully as possible, and because of this, they can significantly slow down the system. If you are looking for an antivirus for your home computer that does not store any valuable information, then it might make sense to choose some free antivirus like AVG - it may only protect your computer from the main threats, but it will practically not load the system.

And if, you have not yet decided whether you need an antivirus at all, then I advise you to read this article -

It goes without saying that in our computerized age, protecting information or entire systems from is imperative. In other words, any computer, in addition to the built-in tools of the system itself, must have at least some more or less functional antivirus. Let's try to consider the lightest antiviruses and, based on the test results, determine what is best suited for providing protection today.

Safety comes first!

As for antivirus software, now you can find not dozens of options, but hundreds. Of course, it will not be possible to consider all of them, especially since in terms of functionality they are completely unequal to each other.

Therefore, we will focus on a few of the most famous software products. Perhaps the comparative results will tell someone what is the easiest antivirus for XP or the server version of Windows. Let's make a reservation right away that the same "ekspishka", although it still remains a very popular and demanded system, is nevertheless hopelessly outdated. However, a solution will be proposed for her too.

The lightest antiviruses: the main aspects of testing

Of course, not every person who constantly works with a computer can afford to purchase the most modern configuration with a powerful multi-core processor chip, a large amount of RAM, a modern video card, etc. Therefore, let's see what tests show for the lightest antivirus for a computer with average configuration. Let's take 4, 1 GB of RAM and an 80 GB hard drive as a basis. I think it will be just right for testing.

As for the main tests, consider the performance of several independent laboratories. Among the checks, we highlight the following:

• parallel work with resource-intensive applications;
• threats from unsafe sites;
• speed of copying or moving data on the hard disk;
• work in the background.

Kaspersky Internet Security

So, we have before us one of the most famous anti-virus packages of our time. Many may object. Why was it necessary to include a Kaspersky Lab software product in the list? The fact is that, unlike all other anti-virus packages, this program is the least demanding on system resources.

The test results on the above configuration, although not perfect, look quite encouraging. This primarily concerns the identification of potential threats when working on the Internet or when installing any software. However, along with this, there are also clearly expressed disadvantages. So, for example, the boot time of the system itself significantly increases, after its start it takes a long time to connect via a Wi-Fi connection, when downloading files using the same torrent client, the time to save to disk is quite long. This is due to the verification of content in real time. By the way, Kaspersky is the only package for which this time is off scale.

When accessing the hard disk (copying files), a clear slowdown is felt. Not critical, but still there. And when you start the Photoshop package, in general, the system starts to slow down in earnest (the antivirus itself consumes too much RAM). So to say that this is the lightest antivirus for a laptop or a stationary terminal, it is hard to say. It, in principle, can be used if you do not work with heavy applications in parallel. But in terms of protection, it is in the lead, even despite the increased load on system resources.

ESET Smart Security

Another major player in the antivirus software market is ESET's Smart Security suite. At the moment, the eighth version of the program is available.

In principle, the behavior of this application is somewhat similar to that of Kaspersky. The system boot time has been increased, in addition, the initial check of automatically loaded components takes a long time (this is especially noticeable in Windows XP). On the whole, protection showed good results even with the Anti-Theft function turned off. There are no delays when accessing the hard drive, there are no problems with the speed of Internet access either, however, when Skype starts, the application takes a long time to load. However, if you look at the resource usage monitor, you will notice that the load is not as heavy as it might seem at first. It reaches its maximum peaks only when the anti-virus databases are updated and during the initial scan. It is also possible and necessary to use it, but it cannot be called the fastest, although in comparison with Kaspersky it is heaven and earth.

Dr. Web Security Space

Now about another well-known package, which is rightfully considered one of the best means of protecting computer systems.

What do its results show? First, during installation, the program offers to install its own firewall, which in no case should be done, since conflicts with the native Windows firewall and a significant increase in the load on the system may occur. The system boot is fast enough (according to the report, about 60-65 seconds), but in fact, it takes much more time to completely stop the access to the hard disk. Working in parallel with Photoshop is almost impossible, the Wi-Fi network thinks a little longer than usual when connected, but in all other respects, the indicators are quite high.

Now fly in the ointment. As it turned out, the program sometimes spontaneously activates something like a hidden full scan. In this case, the load on the central processor can increase by 50%. However, this is only observed when using the standard default settings. If you disable all unnecessary, you can get quality protection.

Avira Antivirus Pro

Avira makes a pretty good impression. Basically, in terms of its performance, antivirus is somewhere in the middle of the list. Its only problem is launching resource-intensive applications. With Photoshop, this is not expressed too much, but some with guest (child) operating systems refuse to work (at least when they first start).

In general, it cannot be said that this is the easiest one; nevertheless, it can be used as a reliable protection (especially, hardly anyone will install a virtual machine on weak machines). If you describe it briefly, it is a good solid average.

Avast Internet Security

As for this software product, it scored true in almost all indicators, some errors were noticed in identifying potential threats.

But when launching Photoshop or accessing the hard drive, monitoring the load on the system showed an unprecedented result. For example, the consumption of RAM in active mode is only 80-100 MB! The only drawback is the excessive talkativeness of the program. Yes Yes! Precisely talkativeness, since the voice notification mode is enabled in the default settings. However, turning it off will not be difficult.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Finally, the native brainchild of Microsoft. As testing shows, it must also be included in the list of "The lightest antiviruses". Since our most common systems are still Windows systems, it suits them almost ideally, because who, if not the creators of this family of operating systems themselves, know exactly what holes in the security system they have. In addition, when using this package, conflicts in the firewall are excluded.

For all other indicators, the result can be called satisfactory, except for the excessive load on the system when accessing the hard drive. Sometimes, when installing third-party programs, a false positive may appear, because some of them try to make the necessary changes to the system files.

What is the lightest antivirus?

What do the test results say, in which the lightest antiviruses were presented? The best overall performance is demonstrated by Avast. First of all, this is practically no load on the system, even when working with heavy programs. The protection system, of course, is not ideal, but for weak machines or configurations based on Windows XP, I think it is ideal. Besides, technical aspects aside, Avast is the lightest free antivirus out there. But most programs either need to be bought or constantly activated when using even shareware versions.

On the other hand, today there is not a single program that would meet the high security requirements, and moreover, would not load the system. And, of course, other well-known antiviruses like Bitdefender and based on it were not considered here, in view of the fact that the antivirus itself is too gluttonous, and although its modifications like 360 \u200b\u200bSecurity work quite fast, they do not provide the proper level of protection, and even often give a false alarm. However, what exactly to use is a purely personal matter.