Your system is possibly a little under powered 512MB even on XP would benefit from an extra 512MB, this should show improved system performance overall.
It is possibly best for you to delay the update check (see below) until your system is fully up and running, but you should also be very selective on what you allow to run on boot. Many applications when installed set themselves to run on boot when it isn't essential that they do, media players are just one example, they are only needed when you actually open a media file.
Delay Auto Update - In avast7 you need to edit (using
notepad)
avast5.ini the
[InetWD] section of the, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AVAST Software\Avast\avast5.ini (XP file location)
- Broadband connections, add this line:
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120 and
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1 if not present (or edit AssumeAlwaysConnected=0 to AssumeAlwaysConnected=1)
[InetWD]
AssumeAlwaysConnected=1
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=120
When complete save the changes, avast's self-defence module will ask for confirmation, etc. answer Yes.