At the moment I'm using Norton AV 2004 and it is really slowing my systems performance down. Every so often I back up my stuff and wipe the drive as no matter how often i defrag and do other maintenance, things start to slow down. Recently i did this and left the virus scanner to last. After installing it i noticed how much the system had slowed down along with about six extra services running, about 64Mb of extra memory used and the hard disks working twice has hard. I'm starting to wonder if having it is worth the lose in performance but still would feel happier having one. Can anybody suggest a virus scanner that uses less system resources or one I can have more control of what its doing and when? Any help appreciated.

About any well-known scanner (F-Prot, AVG, etc.) needs less sources than NAV. So...

Norton Anti-virus 2004 is well known for hogging the memory. if you still want to continue using a Norton Virus Scanner, I recommmend NAV 2002, it does the job and doesn't slow system performance too much. Other options include McAfee Ant-virus, this virus scanner performs well, uses even less memory and provides very good security. Stay away from Panda AV, this scanner is a BIG memory guzzler, it can even make your PC freeze on startup. Grisoft's AVG is another good scanner, finds alot of viruses that NAV and McAfee don't catch, but finds it hard to quarantine them, LOL :D. Personally I find McAfee a good scanner and also scan with AVG as a backup, but TBH this one is your call, as opinions vary over which AV scanner is best. Good luck.

use dr. web. small and good. http://www.sald.com/

Thanks guys. I went for AVG. It cost £50 less(Free), i got 59Mb of ram back and it does the same job.