RealTime protection?

Lately my computer has been running really slow, regardless I have a very healthy PC. I have very limited bandwidth, but even with things that I don't need internet usage for; It is extremely slow. I recently went from Avast to Avira Antivirus, and I did make sure I uninstalled Avast before installing Avira. I only have Avira currently, but I am wondering if it is running slow because of RealTime protection. I know most decent antiviruses use up a lot of the computer's resources, but it is using up WAY more than usual, and everything is extremely slow. :confused

I don't really know how Realtime protection works, but I was wondering if Realtime protection is conflicting with Avira antivirus. I turned it off for now, but it says that I am unprotected which makes me a little bit worried. Should I enable realtime protection or not? Please tell me, it would be appreciated.

 

I don't know which version of Windows you're running but, right click the taskbar and open Task Manager. Switch to the Processes Tab and see what's using the CPU and RAM the most.

 

I use Avast and I'm wondering, why did you switch from Avast to Avira?

No, they don't. Avast is using 0% of CPU resources in my laptop as I type this. Now, if I start a quick or full scan, then, sure, it might have a noticeable impact if I'm using the computer at the same time. But otherwise, if it is simply running in the background to monitor activity in the computer, then it is normally using very little CPU resources.

Exactly what do you mean by "Realtime protection"? You talk about it as though it's a separate program you have installed.

 

It's just extra protection that my Antivirus has. Also, I switched because I heard quite a few people say they liked it a lot more than avast, so I want to try it out myself and see.

 

Well, I don't know of any anti-virus program that does not provide real time protection. Providing real time protection, by default, is the norm, not an exception. Think about it. Would you want an anti-virus program to basically be asleep while you're online accessing email and surfing the web and only come to life when you deliberately awoke it? That would not be good protection.

 

Both Avira and Avast have very low system impact among major anti-virus products tested.

This is a .pdf document showing the latest performance test results by AV Comparatives.
Scroll down to page 11 to see the graph of the test results.

Anti-Virus Comparative: Performance Tests

Although these tests are for security suites, they are usually very close to the individual anti-virus.