Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I have a ThinkPad T40, with Windows XP. What is the best free anti-virus program for it? It needs to be free, and good detection rates, also lightweight. I was thinking about Avast! because I have it on my Acer Aspire One. I hear Avast! has good detection rates, and its lightweight. But is Avast! the right choice for a ThinkPad T40? If not, what is the best free anti-virus for it?

Avira or Avast would be my choices. I'm still using AVG on my desktop just because I'm too lazy to change. But, I use Avira on a couple of Thinkpads.

Ok, I have never used Avira, but I heard people say it has slow updates. I will google it. I do like Avast! its on every computer in our house, so I might put Avast! on my ThinkPad.

Avast is great. I tried AVG then Avira. Both seemed to affect speed of the machines they were on and Avira updates were hopeless. I then installed Avast and it has caused no problems.

cookie wrote:Ok, I have never used Avira, but I heard people say it has slow updates.

That problem was solved months ago.

goofyGAguy wrote:That problem was solved months ago.

Avira still has slower updates than AVG Free, which is why in general I prefer the latter. But on older machines, AVG Free slows things down a lot more than Avira, and so I use Avira on my oldest computer, a 240Z. But sounds like Avast is faster than both Avira and AVG. I will give it a try.

UPDATE: I just tried it on my 240Z (500MHz PIII, 256MB PC100 RAM, 4MB video RAM). The system now feels much snappier! Lots of YouTube videos that used to stutter are now much smoother!

I just looked at Avast! It looks pretty good, high detection rates, and lightweight. I think I'm going to buy Avast! Internet Security, has lots of features. Has anyone tried Avast! Internet Security?

pianowizard wrote:
Avira still has slower updates than AVG Free,

The daily updates from Avira are generally on the order of 500 kb to 1 MB, so does it really matter?

What about Microsoft Security Essentials? I heard some reviews that said its good. Is it good?

Yes...Essentials is good.

Is MSE better then Avast?

cookie wrote:Is MSE better then Avast?

Yes, both in terms of performance and in terms of detection rates.

Oh, and the interface is much nicer. Also, it doesn't speak to you.

Well, I just got the ThinkPad today, and it has AVG 9.0 on it. Should I keep it?

ThinkRob wrote:Also, it doesn't speak to you.

Sounds can be switched off in Avast's menu, which stops the silly voice everytime it updates.

cookie wrote:Well, I just got the ThinkPad today, and it has AVG 9.0 on it. Should I keep it?

I would get rid of AVG 9.0 and install Avast. Just my tuppence worth.

Ok, thanks, I'm going to uninstall AVG and installing Microsoft Security Essentials, because I heard its lighter then Avast! and higher detection rate.

Yeah, I'd definitely ditch AVG. They used to be my #1 choice for home system deployments, but then they fell into the bloatware trap, and (at least when last I checked a couple months ago) haven't recovered. Too bad.

Avast! isn't too bloated, but from what I've seen, its detection rates leave something to be desired.

MSE, on the other hand... well... even as an adamant *nix user, I have to say: Microsoft produced one heck of a solid tool.

I'd go for Security Essentials over Avast. AVG Free 9 always worked OK for me but I found it didn't detect viruses very well - if you know what I mean? I just didn't feel like a proper AV...

I'm still using AVG Free 9 on a Fujitsu with XP Pro that I have and my brother's HP with XP MCE 2005 however.

If you ask me - the best anti-virus program is Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 or 2011 - but of course this is not free.

cookie wrote:Is MSE better then Avast?

I tried MSE on my 240Z (500MHz PIII, 256MB PC100 RAM) for two days. It bogged down the system much more than Avast did, especially when it was searching for updates to download. So I just went back to Avast.

pianowizard wrote: I tried MSE on my 240Z (500MHz PIII, 256MB PC100 RAM) for two days. It bogged down the system much more than Avast did, especially when it was searching for updates to download. So I just went back to Avast.

In all fairness though, a T40 is a much more modern machine than that, and the performance of the software on a reasonably-current machine is pretty solid.