free virus scanner, easy on gaming ?

[grex]

Hi guys,

I'm a gamer and that's why I don't want Norton or McAffee on my new laptop, cause they run in the background and slow things down (even when deactivated, I heard).

Is there any FREEWARE virus scanner for Windows XP (Home Edition, SP2), which does NOT run in the background and does NOT monitor internet security, but ONLY starts up when I ORDER it to run a one-time system check?

(like the old F-prot for DOS did, which I can't use anymore, cause it doesn't run on computers without Floppy Disc)

Thanks for your help.

Grex

[chaslang]

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Originally Posted by grex

Is there any FREEWARE virus scanner for Windows XP (Home Edition, SP2), which does NOT run in the background and does NOT monitor internet security, but ONLY starts up when I ORDER it to run a one-time system check?

Any antivirus program that is to be an effective tool in fighting malware, has to hook in to run at startup and need services to be running in order to properly protect you PC. Any program that does not do this, will not be that effective and any virus, trojan....etc could easily bypass or shutdown that kind of antivirus program. Any antivirus program that only runs when you tell it to run is basically just an on demand scanner and does not protect your PC.

If you shut down your antivirus program and your PC is still connected to the internet, you are putting your security at risk just to play games.

There are antivirus programs that are not as resources hungry that you should try out. Also never use any internet security suite (the everything package) as they are all resource hogs.


Check out the below but only install one antivirus application at any given time. If you want to install another, make sure you completely uninstall any other AV first.

• Avast! Home Edition

• AVG Free Edition

• AntiVir Personal Edition - for Win NT/2K/XP/2003
• AntiVir Personal Edition 7 for Win9x/ME
• PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition - forWin 2K/03/XP/Vista