Best Lightweight Anti-Virus?

[mjedi7]

Avira Antivir, i've been using the free version for years, no problems at all, everyday small updates, lightweight.

http://www.avira.com/en/for-home

[farmeunit]

I've seen several exploits that MSE has let right by, but Antivir caught. I was installing some software while browsing one day and got a popup without paying attention while MSE did nothing. I tried the same thing on the same site and Antivir popped up immediately. I'm sure the opposite could happen in other situations, but most machines I've recommended installed MSE on, also ended up coming back with infections eventually, while the Antivir machines remain relatively bug free. Just my experiences.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I've seen several exploits that MSE has let right by, but Antivir caught. I was installing some software while browsing one day and got a popup without paying attention while MSE did nothing. I tried the same thing on the same site and Antivir popped up immediately. I'm sure the opposite could happen in other situations, but most machines I've recommended installed MSE on, also ended up coming back with infections eventually, while the Antivir machines remain relatively bug free. Just my experiences.

try out the new MSE beta on Microsoft Connect, they've made some great improvements in this regard I've noticed

[python134r]

MSE

[RobDrak]

Guys! You dont know sh***t about Antiviruses.

I tried them all and the lightest Antivirus is, that works great on even slowest P4 systems running WinXP is : SOLO Antivirus. Period.

[alisalem]

Like others said, MSE on Windows Vista/7 because are much more secure than XP.

Kaspersky or NOD32 on XP. Kaspersky is not lightweight but not that resource hungry either. It's very trustworthy.

Avast is not too shabby as well.

[mattmatik]

I like webroot myself. Can't beat the footprint and the database is updated continuously.

[Gorilla P]

You really only have a few options for effective free lightweight antivirus protection.I will list those as well as a couple other things you can do.

Antivirus Options

Panda Cloud - This is a cloud-based scanner. It's extremely lightweight and has decent detection rates.

Immunet - This is another scanner that is cloud-based. However, they have adapter ClamAV into it has the traditional AV protection as well. This uses multiple scanning engines. If you use this (which I often do), go to the settings and select the option to enable ClamAV and the other two scanning engines.

MSSE - I have been left unimpressed by this. Third party scan tests show MSSE near the bottom of the pack in every zero day detection rate test. (GIven the other two free lightweight options, I would say not to use it, but it's your choice so I added it in there anyways)

As far as the other things to avoid viruses. There are two essential things (aside from using common sense on what to.not to download and open.)

Use a chrome-based browser such as Google Chrome or SRWare Iron. These browsers now have sandboxed flash which does not allow infectious flash scripts to infect your machine as they used to. (this is still an issue with ActiveX scripts in IE)

Install the AdBlock Plus addon and use the FanBoy Ultimate List for blocking. (can be download added from from http://fanboy.co.nz/filters.html)

You can also use a custom host file to block known infectious sites and ad-hosting sites. I would recommend the one from http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm