Memory Usage:

[TheRebel]

Dear Moderator(s),

I want to ask that how much memory (RAM) does avast! free home edition uses?

Prior to avast! I was using AVG Free Edition, which slowed down my computer and browsing on some websites also became slow, so I installed avast! home edition.

I read that avast! is low on resources and doesn't make ur pc slow. It is a very good anti virus, infact excellent considering it is free, but it has made my pc a lil slow especially at startup and when i resume from the screen saver.

I'm using Intel Pentium 1.6 GHz dual core processor with 1GB RAM.
And using avast! Home Edition Free.

Regards.

[DavidR]

avast is relatively light on RAM, but RAM is there to be used than to sit there unused.

What tends to make your system slow is high CPU % used rather than amount of RAM used.

So two factors are a) the amount of RAM you have to start with and b) the CPU you are using and yours seems to be up to the task.

How did you remove AVG before installing avast ?
What other security applications do you have installed, anti-spyware, firewall, etc.  ?

[TheRebel]

Dear DavidR,

I uninstalled AVG Free Edtion through control panel, removed its settings and everything.

Then I tried AntiVir as well, which was really good in that it didn't make my PC slow, but lacked some good components which avast! home edition offers.

Anywayz currently I only have avast! Free Home Edition installed in my PC, no other anti virus, anti spyware.

And just Windows firewall is activated which is by default.

Mostly face problem of slow system when i start my PC, or resume from screen saver.

Regards.

[DavidR]

Well avira doesn't give the same depth of cover (which you found) so you really can't compare the two.

I would suggest you run these tools just to ensure that there are no remnants.

AVG8 Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.

Avira AntiVir Uninstall Package & RegistryCleaner (choose appropriate version): http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html.

[TheRebel]

Dear DavidR,

Thank you very much. You are really doing a great job by helping us.

I'll definitely try these.

But just want to ask about 32 and 64 bit, this question might be irrelevant, so if u reply to this, it would be really great, otherwise it would be okay too 

How can i know whether i'm using 32 bit or 64 bit windows version??? 

Regards.

[DavidR]

I would say it is highly unlikely that you are using a 64bit version of windows as it is a step not taken without thought and concious decision.

If you have had this system for some time it is even less likely you have 64bit windows (XP Pro or Vista).

[TheRebel]

DavidR

Alright!

Well as per ur guidance, I did run the Registery cleaner from Avira site. And after scanning I deleted all the keys of Avira that it found. It didn't give me any AVG Free keys in the scan results.

And yep I bought this sytem a year or two before. So i think it is 32 bit version of windows, but still not sure.

Regards.

[DavidR]

If you haven't rebooted since, do so and see if that has resolved the problem

[Mr.Agent]

I got 32 bits also and its work fine for me Dont worry

[TheRebel]

Dear DavidR,

Yep i've run both the Registery clearner (from Avira's site) and AVG Remover from (AVG site), and really its better now.

I didn't reboot my PC the last night, but now as I've started my PC it is working good, better than before.

Thanks a lot 

Regards.

[DavidR]

Your welcome.

Now you can see what we mean by avast being relatively light on resources and the importance of ensuring all remnants of previous AVs are removed.

[TheRebel]

Dear DavidR,

yep u r right. avast! is really good and light on resources.

Thanks for ur guidance regarding removing the remnants of previous AVs.

Well through registery clearner (got from avira's website), it did find some keys for Avira, which i deleted, but didn't find anything related to AVG.

and i also ran AVGREMOVER which after running made a notepad file with results. it is a big file containing text. i can't really get it. what i've got from that file is that AVG was successfully removed through control panel (when i uninstalled it through control panel)

the result file contains lines like:

2009-05-08 18:58:48,385 INFO Processing service avg8emc
2009-05-08 18:58:48,385 INFO Service avg8emc is not installed
2009-05-08 18:58:48,385 DEBUG Service avg8emc RegCleanup
2009-05-08 18:58:48,385 DEBUG Registry keys for service avg8emc are not present[/i]

And I had AVG 8.5, but on AVG's website i could only get remover for AVG8. I think avgremover8 is used to remove AVG8.5 also ... right???

But, anywayz my system's performance (speedwise) has certainly become better after running registery cleaner. It is working fine now. 

Regards.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

The main thing is that you have run both removal tools and all remnants if any (seems so for avira) are gone as you have found in your other topics.

Yes AVG8 did seem to be the problem version hence the need for the AVG8 tool. Previous versions 7.5 and earlier didn't seem to have this problem and it looks avg8.5 is also better behaved.

[TheRebel]

Dear DavidR,

yep, thanks. 

Regards.