antivirus software?

I need a free antivirus software, for my Acer aspire One, which is Windows XP. Can any one give me any suggestions? I'm looking for one that is light on resources, high detection rates, and won't slow my laptop, thanks!

 

Try Avast! Home Free Edition, it's not too bad, never seen it slow down a system, and it's free

http://www.avast.com <-- you'll find it there

 

i recommend and use microsoft security essentails

 

Any antivirus software, free or not free, will slow your Acer down. Any software that is monitoring/scanning files is going to take its toll on your system and its overall performance, and on a netbook it is quite significant. Some are better than others, but realize that you are going to see some slowdowns, especially when running any disk-heavy operations.

 

I have a new Aspire One and am also looking for virus software. I am running Windows 7 and need something that will run on 7. Anything free out there?

Anyone have any experience with cyberDefender? It's not free, but is it good?

I am also looking for an email program I can use. I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird, but it won't send or receive email. Connects, but then my connection times out. Not sure what's going on, but maybe I need a different piece of software?

Beth

 

I personally use Norton IS as being the best consumer tradeoff of protection and light resource use, and advise searchers ignore the holdover grudges from the (very real) days when it was a resource hog that couldn't be uninstalled - it all changed in 2007 and thereafter. That said, it's not free, although I've gotten a three license version after Xmas from big box stores like Staples and Best Buy for under $30 every year.

I have MSE installed on an old Dell 512MB 866mHz laptop I keep as a sentimental backup, and am impressed at how good it is on resources, but no experience of threat protection yet.

The first thing to know is that these utilities change every year and they keep jockeying for position by changing features, packages and prices. For that very reason it takes some study to prevent problems and resource clogging if you "mix and match" products by different vendors instead of installing a suite by one maker. And each suite has its strong and weak points.

Update - Here's PCMag's latest rundown of 2011 suites:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369749,00.asp