Any Antivirus lighter than Windows Defender?

[hardbag]

Avast 9 is mega light, 2 backround processes, service and GUI, using together less than 10MB of ram when running at the background.

 

Avast 9 also has new feature called Deepscreen, well it's the new fork of sandbox, as new generation viruses like Stuxnet and Flame (and many more!) do not get caught on the 'old' signature based method to which all AntiViruses have been built on. Do not worry (too much), as security companies and start-ups are developing new ways to tackle these next/new generation viruses. One example would be http://www.trustware.com/#!bufferzone-pro/cffd ... But that's a security container pretty much the same way as Avast's Deepscreen is - though with many differences, and it might be a good idea to run example Bufferzone Pro with Avast 9.

 

I guess there's no Deepscreen/Sandbox at Windows Defender/MSE...

 

I haven't tested Bufferzone Pro, so I don't know what the footprint is, but to your original question, Avast 9 is mega-ultra-light.

 

Btw, Didn't MS recently announced that Defender/MSE (in xp, Vista, 7 and 8) are inadequate, that it offers only very basic and limited security.. Check AV security comparisons and find Microsoft's product always the weakest.

[hardbag]

Look at this thread: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1189377-avg-2014-vs-avast-2014-memory-usage/