Old legacy Computer and antivirus support?

[wonderzebra]

Hi, I have an old legacy ibm thinkpad T22, 800mhz cpu, 512mb ram <THIS IS THE MAX RAM PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO INSTALL, PUTTING MORE RAM IN IS IMPOSSIBLE UNLESS SOME KNOWS SOMETHING THAT  THE MAJOR RAM RESELLERS DON'T KNOW!>, 80gig hdd, running the factory os install of windows 2000. Since version 4.8 is to end soon, what are my options? Ive tried upgrading to XP pro, but just starting word 2003 on that install, Id be  growing an 5 o'clock shadow waiting for it to load. Yes I know win2k is no longer receiving updates, the laptop only connects to the network for the network printer and sending the odd word document via email. As a glorified word processor the  machine is brilliant.  the rest of the household computers run a mixture of, windows 7 and various virtual machines running ecomstation or linux. The latest linux distros seem to not support the PIII speed step and the bugs been reported upstream, when its fixed I will dual boot this pc, but till then this pc is very usable with avast 4.8 free. Will I see a major performance hit upgrading the antivirus, is there anyway to reduce the resources the upgraded antivirus will use, without loosing too much protection

I would replace the computer but I'm on a disability support pension since being made redundant a few years back, I cant afford the money.

With regards Wonderzebra

[SafeSurf]

You can do the following to conserve memory:

1.  Remove any unnecessary software from your machine.  If you're not sure what to get rid of, just ask us and we'll give you suggestions.
2.  Disable all non-essential software from start-up.
3.  Put any exe, pics, music, documents that you have stored on your machine (like in My Documents or Downloads) on an external source (like a flash drive or CD).
4.  Clean up your machine with something like CCleaner Slim Version, which has no toolbars and is light on memory: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds .
5.  Defrag your machine with something like Puran or Defraggler, then run the boot-scan version of this from the vendor (it will reboot your machine).  You can find them at filehippo.com
6.  Change your System Restore point to the minimal amount your machine will accept.
7.  Delete having a screen saver and wallpaper...they both use memory.

These are just a few suggestions.  Let us know if this helps.

[Simion]

You might look at running ClamWin interfaced with Clam Sentinel.

[CraigB]

You might look at running ClamWin interfaced with Clam Sentinel.

Why ? avast works with Windows 2000.

[Simion]

You might look at running ClamWin interfaced with Clam Sentinel.

Why ? avast works with Windows 2000.

I thought they might run smoother than Avast on a 800 Mhz processor.

[INGBEAN]

Will I see a major performance hit upgrading the antivirus, is there anyway to reduce the resources the upgraded antivirus will use, without loosing too much protection?

Hello wonderzebra!

Welcome to the forum.
As you can see in my signature, I am working with 256MB on one PC and it works without problems.
By the way: avast! 7 uses significant less of the computer resources compared to avast! 4.8 AND you have a better protection.
Windows 2000 and avast! 7 Free has a memory consumption of approx. 120MB at idle (direct after startup).
So there should be enough resources for the additional programs.
But nevertheless:
1. pay attention that there are not too many programs in the autostart of your Laptop.
2. install SP4 and UR1 before installing avast! 7 Free.

Have a nice day!

INGBEAN

[kaniki]

another thing to think about, if you do upgrade to XP, try turning off things like active desktop. Go back to the legacy or design like windows 98. On XP, the extras that make it look all fancy is what takes up a lot of the memory so that will speed your system up if you lack the resources on XP.

[SafeSurf]

As I said in Post #1, I summarized everyone's suggestions for the OP.  Now if the OP would respond it would be nice so we can continue to help.